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Comments
With only a few days of sampling left, weather forecasts and sea-ice conditions from satellite imagery are being continually reviewed and plans fine-tuned to ensure we make the best use of the available time. Yesterday it seemed that some planned sites to the west would be covered in dense pack-ice and not easily reached. The strong south-easterly winds last night which gusted to more than 30 kts, however, seemed to have worked in our favour, moving the edge of the pack-ice westwards and clearing these sites. As a consequence we will try to sample them. Yesterday's shallow sites (~200m) proved to be very diverse with complex multi-layered sponge and bryozoan dominated communities. Unfortunately the trawl with the digital camera which has been providing us with such excellent images of the sea-bed suffered some damage when it landed up-side down. The Science Technical Support wizards have been busy fixing it overnight and it should be operational again soon. The French beam trawl was used at two sites yesterday and it proved very efficient, collecting very large hauls and appearing to retain some of the smaller infauna that may be lost through the mesh of the AAD trawls. We are currently sampling from the bottom (1200m) of a closed basin northeast of Dumont D'Urville, which appears to be a trap for fine sediment - more about this tomorrow. Regards, Martin and Sarah.
Map
A map showing Australia and Antarctica. The map shows the journey of one voyage that has occured in the season, with each route highlighted in a distinct colour.