The scheme – the largest marine conservation programme of its kind in the world – supports the protection of environments around the UK Overseas Territories of Ascension Island, St Helena and Tristan da Cunha, British Antarctic Territory, British Indian Ocean Territory, Pitcairn Islands and South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands.

These territories are home to some of the most biologically valuable and unique life on Earth, from the butterfly fish of St Helena to the vast penguin colonies of South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands.

Dr Tom Hart, of the Department of Zoology at Oxford University, said: “The more data we get on these islands, the more we are able to disentangle the effects of climate change versus eruptions.

“The whole of the archipelago is a Marine Protected Area, so they are an important contrast to understanding the threats to wildlife elsewhere in the Southern Ocean.”

Earlier this month HMS Protector became the first Royal Navy ship to visit both the Arctic and the Antarctic within six months, some 8,500 miles apart.

With few satellites overhead, the ship’s crew will have very limited opportunities to speak to their families over the festive period.  

They will spend Christmas visiting the British Antarctic Survey Station at Rothera (67°S) but will remain Covid distant from the team already there.