Darwin legacy voyage passes halfway mark

A tall ship, the 107-year-old Oosterschelde, has reached the halfway point of its ambitious two-year journey, retracing Charles Darwin's historic voyage aboard the HMS Beagle. Departing from Plymouth, Devon, in August of last year, the ship serves as a floating classroom for 200 young conservationists from around the globe, who are being trained to become future leaders in environmental conservation. Stewart McPherson, the founder and project leader of Darwin200, emphasized the program's intensity and diversity, covering topics from marine iguanas in the Galapagos to South American parrots. The voyage mirrors Darwin's own expedition, which significantly influenced his development of the theory of natural selection. In May, the Oosterschelde reached the Galapagos Islands, a critical location in Darwin's research. At just 22 years old, Darwin embarked on his five-year journey in 1831, initially intending to pursue a career in the clergy. However, his observations of species variations across the Galapagos Islands and the discovery of extinct species in South America led him to challenge traditional views of creation, culminating in his seminal work, "On the Origin of Species." McPherson reported exciting discoveries made by the onboard teams, including the rediscovery of a gecko species previously thought extinct and new behavioral documentation of an octopus species off Brazil's coast. Currently, the ship is navigating the South Pacific islands, with plans to continue to New Zealand and Australia later this year.