Marine Lab
Our work in Ny-Ålesund has reached a new phase. A rather large amount of data is starting to pile up, and thus some time needs to be allocated to actually processing all the data we have.
As there are a lot of Norwegians around, let’s take a moment to discuss the weather: it changes a lot. As a scientist, one must always be prepared for the possibility that plan B, C or D must be utilised because plan A is depending on good weather.
A little R&R by the beach
A few days ago we almost lost the winch and a whole lot of precious equipment to the deeps of Kongsfjorden, luckily a brave scientist in training from Iceland demonstrated super rapid reflexes and near super human strength managing to save the winch and cage from going overboard and forever be lost.
We now have a new (properly marked) wire thanks to Rupert with a buoy attached to the heavy cage and a safety rope on the winch itself. Sampling could not have gone more smoothly than it did yesterday. Everyone was happy, especially when beautiful bioluminescence flashes were seen during the transfer from the zooplankton sampling net to the bucket.
AUV ready for deployment
Additionally, we managed to successfully replicate backscatter measurements with the AUV and confirmed the results from a previous study. Now we are preparing a mission to map the variability of zooplankton migration across the fjord.
Over and out.
Sebastian Menze, Ida Nordgaard, Hugo Maxwell
