Gruelling round Britain race doubles as floating science lab for marine conservation

The Crown Estate has partnered with the GB Row Challenge – a rowing race around Great Britain that collects vital scientific data on the health of UK coastal waters.

The demanding rowing race around Great Britain will double as a floating research platform collecting open-access data on microplastics, biodiversity and ocean conditions around the British coastline. Every boat participating in the challenge is fitted with scientific equipment that collects environmental data, contributing to national research on ocean health.

The GB Row Challenge rowers will circumnavigate the entire coast of Great Britain, unsupported, over 2,000 miles. This year, two teams will set off on the GB Row Challenge in 2026, which starts at Tower Bridge, London, on Sunday 14 June.

The challenge is considered one of the world’s toughest rowing races as teams have to row continuously and unassisted while navigating complex tidal streams, shipping lanes and volatile weather.

In the 2022 edition of the race, sixteen rowers were rescued during the challenge, with one team capsizing in the Irish Sea.

Marine industry data to be supplied by rowers

Rowers gather data on microplastic pollution, biodiversity, underwater noise pollution, sea temperature and salinity, which will be hosted on The Crown Estate’s Marine Data Exchange, one of the world’s largest collections of marine industry data.

The Crown Estate is a business established by an Act of Parliament, tasked with growing the value of the portfolio for the nation and returning all net profit to HM Treasury for the benefit of public spending. Its portfolio includes urban centres and development opportunities; one of the largest rural holdings in the country; Regent Street and St James’s in London’s West End; and Windsor Great Park. It also manages the seabed and much of the coastline around England, Wales and Northern Ireland, playing a major role in the UK’s offshore wind sector.

This data will contribute to ongoing research efforts aimed at understanding the impacts of human activity on marine ecosystems and informing strategies for conservation and sustainability.

Scientific evaluation via Marine Data Exchange

GB Row Challenge founder, William de Laszlo, says: “We’re thrilled to welcome The Crown Estate as our lead environmental data partner. We share a deep commitment to marine conservation and to making our data openly available for scientists around the world. It’s incredibly exciting to have them alongside us as we turn human endurance into meaningful ocean insight.”

Data from previous races will also be hosted on the Marine Data Exchange, so it is available for wider scientific evaluation. This data was collected by teams who have rowed around Great Britain since 2022 and was made possible thanks to the unique partnership between GB Row Challenge and the University of Portsmouth – lead science partner responsible for analysing the data.

Chelsea Bradbury, senior marine data and insights manager at The Crown Estate, says: “The GB Row challenge is an important initiative providing invaluable insights about the marine environment around Great Britain and we’re proud to support it again in 2026.

“By hosting the data collected on the Marine Data Exchange, it will be openly accessible to scientists, industries and the public to enable informed decision making. This is an important element of The Crown Estate’s Nature Recovery Ambition and will contribute to a better understanding of how we can protect and restore our precious marine environment.”