SAHFOS is an internationally funded independent research non-profit organisation responsible for the operation of the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) Survey. As a large-scale global survey, it provides the scientific and policy communities with a basin-wide and long-term measure of the ecological health of marine plankton. Established in 1931, the CPR Survey is the longest running, most geographically extensive marine ecological survey in the world. It has a considerable database of marine plankton and associated metadata that is used by researchers and policy makers to examine strategically important science pillars such as climate change, human health, fisheries, biodiversity, pathogens, invasive species, ocean acidification and natural capital.
The Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) Survey has merged with the Marine Biological Association. Today the Survey is operated by the Marine Biological Association, based in Plymouth, UK.