RRS Sir David Attenborough: 'Boaty McBoatface' ship docks in Belfast

RRS Sir David Attenborough is also known as Boaty McBoatface

The £200m exploration ship RRS Sir David Attenborough has docked in Belfast for the first time.

The vessel - popularly known as Boaty McBoatface - has recently been to the Antarctic for trials.

It is in Belfast to pick up new crew members ahead of carrying out further scientific studies around the UK coastline.

It is owned by the Natural Environment Research Council and operated by the British Antarctic Survey.

The ship is named after the TV naturalist and BBC presenter Sir David Attenborough

The vessel has been carrying out trials in the Antarctic, testing sea ice and looking at the effects of climate change.

'A remarkable ship'

By Louise Cullen, BBC News NI agriculture and environment correspondent

The ship is situated in the cruise berth in Belfast Lough.

I spent an hour walking round the ship and was shown the incredible science that it is able to do.

There are cameras on board that can be dropped through what is called a moon pool in the bottom of the vessel.

They go down into the water and take pictures and drop to the sea floor in Antarctica - down sometimes as much as 12km.

It can sample soil as well, there is a piece of equipment on here that can take 42m core samples of soil from the sea bed, to be analysed.

It is a remarkable ship and sets off again tomorrow for Denmark.

One member of the crew, the captain, had a shorter distance to travel today compared to other members who took flights - he boarded a train from the north west.

International senior scientific advisers are using the ship as a platform to issue a statement about the urgent need to address the climate crisis.

They want to see a concerted drive to develop - and use - the technologies that will keep global temperature rise to 1.5C and underpin the net zero economies of the future.

The ship is not named Boaty McBoatface, but one of its robotic submersibles was given the moniker

These technologies include better ways of creating, storing and using low-emissions energy - including improving semiconductors, batteries and low-emitting fuel production - as well as work on heating and cooling, and carbon capture and storage.

Named after the TV naturalist and BBC presenter Sir David, the public wanted to call the ship Boaty McBoatface in an online poll but in the end the name was instead given to one of its robotic submersibles.