Sea floor

Here are some pictures from the ocean floor, about 1800m, at Maud Rise on the northern coast of Antarctica. Courtesy Ægir 6000 and Stig Vågenes.

South Africa next

Antarctic toothfish

57kg, 170cm, delicious

Close encounters

Icebergs

Sunset

ROV operations

ROV went down to 1800m, through the moonpool, and took samples from the sea floor: animals, plants and stones.

Adélie penguins and a humpback

Map

Sea glider

Diving through a plankton bloom

Satellite image: Sentinel 3, Tilman Dinter, AWI

Today, during the #DronningMaudLandCruise2019, we deployed one of our two Seagliders; an underwater drone that will make dives between the surface and 1000 m depth to measure ocean temperature, salinity, oxygen, and chlorophyll-a. Satellite images showed that a big plankton bloom is happening right now in this area, perfect timing! The glider will make transects across this bloom for the coming three weeks, remotely piloted by our colleagues in Bergen through Iridium satellite connection. At the end of the cruise we will pick up the glider and obtain a lot of new information on the biology and physics. First water samples confirm that we are looking at a very strong bloom, dominated by various large diatoms.

Photos: Sebastien Moreau, NP

Standard

Catering on board is excellent. Our cook Arild deserves a medal.
Breakfast from 7:30 til 8, hot lunch at 11:30 and diner at 17:30. Buffet style, always 2 dishes to choose from. Plus salad bar and dessert. Big fridge for those who are hungry in the evening or at night.

Heavy sea

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