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Groundhog Day! Still in port, but, thankfully, departure is set for tomorrow morning, and the forecast is suggesting a good few days at least. Fantastic news, indeed! This morning the acousticians cracked open a large (large!!) black box that's sitting on the back of the vessel in order to check and set up the acoustic mooring gear. Basically, acoustic mooring sits on the bottom of the ocean and records noises (i.e., hopefully whales!) at certain times of the day over a long period, say, one year. The recordings--which are analysed at a future time, back in the office--provide a picture of what was swimming by vocalising, and when it was doing so. We're hoping to deploy the acoustic mooring sometime early Monday when the swell and wind are looking to be low. The aim of deploying this equipment during our voyage is to test its design and retrievability (naturally, you can only analyse the data if you can retrieve it!). The mooring will be deployed at a depth of around 800-1000 m, away from known shipping lanes in the area, and retrieved a few days after that. The checks this morning suggest that everything is tickety-boo and good to go for Monday. We'll keep you posted.
REGARDS: Natalie and Daven
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.