India, Nov. 11 -- Originally built for fishery protection, scientists later used the ship for ocean research. Named Falkor, the 82.9-meter ship was originally built in 1981 as a fishery protection vessel. According to Schmidt Ocean Institute, Eric and Wendy Schmidt acquired it in 2009, when they founded the institute, and subsequently commissioned a two-year refit to convert it into a research vessel.

At the time Schmidt Ocean Institute announced its gift to Italy's National Research Council in March 2022, Falkor had completed 81 expeditions, hosted 1,056 foreign scientists, and mapped 1.3 million square kilometers of seafloor. The vessel was to be renamed Gaia Blu and would conduct further ocean research under the Italian agency called ...