Gone with the wind

Today, after more than three days waiting for the airplane, six members of the Coupling oceanographic cruise leave King George Island to Punta Arenas in Chile. They finished the work here and they will enjoy a salad this night in a restaurant. We will remain here processing samples and sailing through the Bransfield Strait to Elephant Island. Below some more pictures of the Antarctic fauna. No ice for today.

Just a symbol of the ocean

Ángeles Marrero from the University of Las Palmas ready to go

Elsa Vázquez and Carmen Primo from the University of Vigo, and Juan Bellas from the Spanish Institute of Oceanography prepared to depart

Borja (white cap) and Mónica in the rubber boat leaving the Hespérides

Bye, bye...

Claire Schmoker from the University of Las Palmas

Carmen Primo from the University of Vigo but working in Australia (Tasmania) since some years

Cristina García from University of Cádiz

A whale saying also bye, bye...

Fed up

Almost 90 oceanographic casts, days of bad weather, calm, wind, snow, freezing,... The sampling is finishing but we will depart with a rather nice picture of the coupling between the physical frame of the Antarctic Peninsula and the flux of carbon promoted by the biota. Finally, our most preciated sampler the Mocness, died two days ago due to a fast electronic shock. We tried to revive it but it was impossible. Fortunately, it happened at the end of sampling. Now, we proceed with the analysis of thousands of samples while we sail again through the Drake, near Elephant Island for some more CTDs and mooring recoveries.

This antarctic pigeon spent a day with us, resting, waking and flying around.

Deploying the Isaac-Kidd Midwater Trawl (IKMT) to capture krill for experiments

Inma Herrera taking krill for experiments of respiration, ammonia excretion and growth

The rosette sampler coming in

The ice falling down...

Routine at sea

Now the work is routine. We are sampling and sampling across the Drake. Fortunately, the weather is right, there is no too much wind and the waves are moderate. People are starting to get tired because of the hard work during 24 h, cold weather and boat movement. Those performing experiments are really exhausted because of the difficulty to combine the compulsory watchs and the time to start or finish each experiment. Below some more pictures of the Antarctic researchers on board R.V. Hespérides, and of course, ice...

The blue ice

Luis Lubián from the University of Cádiz.

From France, Alex Stegner

From Chile, Cristián Henríquez.

Our particular jacuzzi at 0 to 1 degrees celsius containing the experiments of Gara Franchy. She is performing dilution experiments to know the grazing of microzooplankton in these waters.

Some krill used for the experiments of Marta Moyano and Inma Herrera. They are measuring respiration, excretion and growth in this keystone species of Antarctica.

Salps, salps and more salps. This is the content of the Mocness nets during all the cruise. These gelatinous organisms showed large patches and appeared in almost all the tows performed.

Rendezvous in the Southern Ocean

Yesterday we met the vessel Las Palmas which is the boat servicing the Spanish Antarctic Bases. They had some problems with the engines and they spent about three weeks in Punta Arenas. Our rendezvous was in the Drake, in the area we are working.

The vessel Las Palmas transporting other scientific Antarctic fauna

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A cabin with rather nice views (and the ice of today)

Who is the photographer?

The cruise leader. The white hair is not because of the calendar. It is snow.

Snow in the Antarctic Sound

Heavy snow in the middle of the Antarctic Sound. The scientists had to work in very cold conditions but happy to feel the snow on their faces. This was our last work on the Antarctic Sound. Now we are in the Drake Passage again, sampling to the north of South Shetland Islands. The wind is in calm but the swell is quite high. Last night was almost impossible to work. This morning we had to stop due to another problem with the Mocness net. Now, it is repaired but we are afraid of new damages. Below some more pictures of the fauna on board and, of course, some more ice.

Monica Hernández in the storm

Elsa Vázquez from University of Vigo

Inma Herrera

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Freezing in the Antarctic Sound

Very, very low temperatures in the Antarctic Sound. To work outside here is really hard and the turbomap and Mocness teams knows the feeling. Today some pictures to show the freezing temperatures and the turbomap team at work. They have to stay for an hour an half outside, suffering the very cold wind.

The ice stalactites formed in front of the bridge.

The turbomap team at work

The free-fall profiler to measure turbulence in the water column (turbomap)

From right to left: Inma Herrera, Joni, Borja Aguiar, Beatríz Mouriño and Ángeles Marrero.

Beatríz Mouriño

Ángeles Marrero

Sailing toward the Antarctic Sound

Our first oceanographic transect is over but the weather is now very windy. The wind blows at about 30 knots and threfore it is impossible to work on the Drake sector and in the Bransfield Strait. We are sailing toward the Antarctic Sound in order to sample true ice melting oceanographic conditions. We expect to find bloom conditions. Below, some more pictures of the fauna of this boat and, of course, some more ice.

The Antarctic continent

Juan Bellas coming from outside and desperate to send an e-mail

From left to right: María Pérez, Cristina Sobrino and Eva Teira

Two members of the physical oceanography team: Mónica Hernández and Ángeles Marrero

The Antarctic continent

and more ice

Coupling Cruise: working hard

After a series of compulsory "Antarctic jobs" such as the transport of other researchers and material to the bases, we started to work in the Bransfield Strait. We had some problems with the Mocness net but they are now solved. The weather is really nice with no wind and sunshine and the results we are obtaining are also interesting. Below some pictures of the scientist at work and the beautiful and wonderful views around us.

The rossete sampler

The fast repetition rate fluorometer (FRRF)

Lidia Nieves at work with her incubations

The Multiple Opening Closing Net and Environmental Sensing System (MOCNESS)

Astrolabe Island near the Antarctic continent

One of the hundreds icebergs around us

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