The Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) survey is one of the longest running marine biological monitoring programmes in the world. Started in 1931 by Sir Alister Hardy, the CPR has provided marine scientists with their only measure of plankton communities on a pan-oceanic scale. Today the CPR survey is operated by the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science (SAHFOS), located in Plymouth, UK. Uniquely, the CPR survey’s methods of sampling and plankton analysis remain unchanged since 1948, providing a spatio-temporally comprehensive > 60 year record of marine plankton dynamics.