In February and May 2003, a pilot project was conducted in Bermuda’s Sargasso Sea. The study’s sequencing and analysis results, published in the journal Science in April 2004, revealed unexpectedly high microbial diversity in a region that is relatively nutrient poor and thus thought to have very low diversity of microbial life. More than 1.2 million new genes and more than 1,800 species were identified using a whole genome shotgun sequencing technique by which scientists clone (copy) random DNA fragments from the many microbes present in the sample.

After its launch in Halifax, Nova Scotia in August 2003, the Sorcerer II sailed south into the Gulf of Maine, then along the U.S. East Coast sampling in the ecologically important Narragansett, Delaware and Chesapeake Bays. The vessel then passed Cape Hatteras and traveled around Florida into the Gulf of Mexico, through the Panama Canal and to Cocos Island and then on to the Galapagos Islands. The Sorcerer II then sampled across the central and south Pacific through French Polynesia, the Cook Islands, Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and in Australia, where the Sorcerer II was based for approximately six months. From there, the Sorcerer II sampled across the Indian Ocean, sailing near Madagascar and then around South Africa. The final leg of the Expedition included sampling across the South Atlantic. The initial voyage ended with a trip through the Eastern Caribbean and back to the East Coast of the U.S.

The Sorcerer II set sail in December 2006 leaving Virginia heading through the Chesapeake Bay, and then south along the East Coast of the United States. After a transit through the Panama Canal, the vessel headed north through Central America and on to Mexico sampling in the Sea of Cortez. The Expedition continued up the West Coast of the U.S. into Alaska. While in Alaska the Sorcerer II took samples in Glacier Bay National Park including water taken from melting glaciers there. After this Sorcerer headed south again to her home port of San Diego.

Throughout 2008, the Sorcerer II conducted extensive sampling in the waters off San Diego and the coast of California, Oregon, and Washington. Much of this sampling was done aboard Sorcerer II but several sampling trips were conducted by JCVI scientists aboard other collaborators’ vessels including those done with Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of Washington, Oregon Health and Science University, and the California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations.

Several JCVI researchers also participated in deep sea sampling cruises as part of expeditions aboard the R/V Atlantis which carries the deep-sea submersible, Alvin. These expeditions were done in collaboration with scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, University of Delaware, and other institutions. The JCVI scientists were interested in sampling the underwater geysers in the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Cortez to capture the viruses living in these extreme conditions.

JCVI scientists also conducted several sampling trips to Antarctica where they sampled stratified lakes to understand the microbial diversity in these harsh polar conditions.

Having successfully completed a global circumnavigation, conducted ongoing sampling in waters off California and the West Coast of the United States, and carried out sampling with other collaborators in extreme conditions such as Antarctica and deep-sea ocean vents, the research vessel Sorcerer II and Dr. Venter embarked to the waters of Europe. This two-year leg of the Sorcerer II Expedition, funded by generous donations from the Beyster Family Foundation Fund of The San Diego Foundation and Life Technologies Foundation, explored the microbial life in the waters of the Baltic, Mediterranean, and Black Seas. These are scientifically important because they are among the world’s largest seas isolated from the major oceans.

The Sorcerer II left her home port of San Diego, California on March 19, 2009, heading south along the coast of Mexico, eventually reaching Europe. The team visited England, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Estonia, and other Baltic countries, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Bulgaria.