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Last night the expeditioner's and crew on board the AA hosted our final 'special occasion'. Billed in local media* as the 'Present Exchange - New Years - Ian's Birthday - Special Occasion - Pizza Party' (PENYIBSOPP), the evening commenced in the mess with pizza and drinks, a New Year's toast to the ship's crew for their superb efforts this voyage and the celebration of an expeditioner's birthday – with chocolate cake and everything.
On the subject of belated celebrations, it was then time for the long awaited Kris Kringle; with ship's crew and expeditioners exchanging gifts under $10.00 and in some cases well under $10.00 within the seasonally decorated library. Highlights from the exchange included an elasticised rope, tied to a bundle of other rope, a portable mini Ping-Pong set and a torch – which looked like it was going to come in very handy earlier this morning.
With the last iceberg sighted early this morning and a fairly calm expanse of blue ahead of us and the ship having just this afternoon passed over latitude 60, our time in the Antarctic has come to an end. To cope with the lack of visual stimulus, the theatre has added matinee film screenings, whilst our ship's paper 'Aurora Australis' continues to find newsworthy content on board.
*Conceived and masterfully implemented by our CTO (and local media mogul) Ben, the paper's format, whilst disconcertingly similar to our 'official' news handout remains editorially cooperatively benign yet drily astute. Combining feature articles on local affairs with weather updates, notable expeditioner quotes (recently wildly lacking context), community updates and a puzzle page. Headlines taken from yesterday's edition included: 'E-Deck Heatwave'; 'Buddhist brings Coptic Christmas Celebration'; 'Aurora's Accelerating Anti-Antarctically' and 'DVL's Induction Crackdown'. Pure gold.
Rightly corrected for prematurely declaring an end to marine science activities on board in yesterday's sitrep, please find below a summary of the CPR, which was again deployed this morning, written by John K and attached by a duly contrite VL. :
"As part of the SCAR Southern Ocean Continuous Plankton Recorder (SO-CPR) Survey, zooplankton samples have been intensively collected on most Aurora Australis voyages to the Antarctic continent and back since 1991, and continues this 2017/2018 season. (Antarctic) zooplankton are sensitive to environmental parameters such as temperature, movement of currents and water quality. Due to their sensitivity, short life spans and fast growth rates, plankton populations respond rapidly to environmental change and consequently make excellent biological indicators. Monitoring of zooplankton populations and communities is therefore an important tool in identifying the effects of both climate change and pollution on the Southern Ocean. Zooplankton are also the principal dietary components of many higher vertebrates, including penguins, seals and sea-birds. Therefore, changes in zooplankton distribution and abundance in the Southern Ocean are expected to have a significant effect on higher trophic levels.
By employing a Continuous Plankton Recorder, or CPR, surface or near-surface zooplankton can be collected at normal ship speed during a voyage. The unit is usually towed about 100 metres astern of the ship for approximately 450 nautical miles at a time. By splicing consecutive tows together one is able to produce an uninterrupted transect across the ocean, providing information on zooplankton distribution patterns, community structure, and abundance levels.
During Voyage 2, a total of possibly 9-10 routine CPR samples are being collected on both the southward and northward legs of the voyage, between Tasmania and the Casey sea-ice marginal zone."
Kind regards,
James and Dave
V2 Voyage Management
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.