Antarctica

9 March 2018In the back of Karl Safi’s lab, where we found him working in the semi-dark, is a very futuristic looking piece of kit called the Radially Aligned Linear Photosynthetron (RALPH).

10 March 2018To verify the identities of animals we see on the DTIS camera, we use an epibenthic sled to collect physical samples of animals from the seafloor.

8 March 2018The Benthic team have been observing and identifying animals living on the seabed at Long Ridge, north of the Ross Sea.

6 March 2018Today the screaming sixties are living up to their name. We are at 67°S, just east of Scott Island, and deck work has been suspended temporarily while we weather a storm.

5 March 2018Sean Hartery, a PhD student from Canterbury University based at NIWA, is collecting samples and data for two main areas of atmospheric research while he is out here in the Ross Sea: ice nuclei and aerosols.

4 March 2018On Friday the sun shone for the first time in a while, and we sailed close to our second proper iceberg of the voyage.

28 February 2018We are slowly zigzagging our way north up Iselin Bank as the mesopelagic team have been running their giant fish finder, the EK60.

2018 - Antarctic Voyage Update #3

26 February 2018In the last few days our microbial team has been doing intensive sampling of the water column using the CTD, which is deployed every day around noon.

25 February 2018We have been told by people who have previously visited the Ross Sea that you could count on seeing three things: icebergs, penguins on icebergs and seals hauled out icebergs.

24 February 2018Scientists and crew have been busy assembling an active acoustic mooring for deployment, working on the Iselin Bank and have been visited by an Adelie penguin.

21 February 2018John McGregor from NIWA checks on the instruments that measure atmospheric gases throughout our voyage.