The oceanography lab next to the CTD room is a maze of plumbing linking test tubes, flasks, computer screens and electronic devices. It's heart, which never stop beating, is the 'debubbleometer', which provides the lifeblood to many of the research projects underway on the voyage. Surface seawater drawn from beneath the ship is continuously measured by a range of instruments: a salinometer (measuring salt), a fluorometer (measuring fluorescence) a temperature probe and a CO2 monitor. There's a great deal of interest in CO2. People are taking samples to learn more about the relationship between CO2 found in the air and the ocean, which makes the debubbleometer (or air separator) a vital piece of equipment. It's crucial that only the CO2 in the water is measured an...

86.80033 deg S, 54.45187 deg E 3151 meters above sea level Maximum & Minimum Temperatures: - 27 °C to - 36 °C We continued packing, washing and gradually things came in order. We worked more on our joint presentation that will be held at South Pole tomorrow. Also, flight operations started and John and Jan-Gunnar were busy organizing with ALCI and Troll Station. Late in the day, the Basler that is going to fly us to the Pole was reported on its way and expected to land around 3 a.m. local time tomorrow, i.e. New Zealand time. Half of the group continues directly to the South Pole while the rest will be in Camp Winter for another day or so. The Prime Minister of Norway, Mr. Jens Stoltenberg, as the first Norwegian Prime Minister in Antarctica, landed...

Anti whaling activities in the Southern Ocean headlined this morning's daily onboard newspaper "Australia Today". The paper comprises four A4 pages printed from News on Board services via TEAMtalk Satellite. Anything from our part of the world, the Southern Ocean, generates animated conversation. Two Sea Shepherd Conservation Society members from the ship the 'Steve Irwin' boarded the Japanese ship the Yushin Maru No 2 to deliver a letter to the captain advising him that he was illegally killing whales in the Southern Whale Sanctuary. They were promptly taken into custody on the ship, where they remain. Notions of law at sea were bandied about at lunch along with the practicalities of regulation, prosecution, anarchy and foolhardiness. Opinion was divided....

Anti whaling activities in the Southern Ocean headlined this morning's daily onboard newspaper "Australia Today". The paper comprises four A4 pages printed from News on Board services via TEAMtalk Satellite. Anything from our part of the world, the Southern Ocean, generates animated conversation. Two Sea Shepherd Conservation Society members from the ship the 'Steve Irwin' boarded the Japanese ship the Yushin Maru No 2 to deliver a letter to the captain advising him that he was illegally killing whales in the Southern Whale Sanctuary. They were promptly taken into custody on the ship, where they remain. Notions of law at sea were bandied about at lunch along with the practicalities of regulation, prosecution, anarchy and foolhardiness. Opinion was divided....

We are amongst some very dramatic icebergs at various stages of decay. There are lots of crazy triangular tilts, some long tabulars, many with massive glowing caves, decaying fringes and yawning cracks. Sharing the stage is the backdrop of the Antarctic continent. We steam parallel to it all day and because it might be my last glimpse I'm up and down to the bridge for regular good long looks. The ship is a fascinating combination of complex and traditional technologies. Take the 'French beam trawl' which is doing so much of the benthic work. In the end it's just a four and a bit metre long lump of wood with a 35 centimetre frame to keep the mouth of a ten metre long prawn net open to the catch. Sounds simple, but it's a workhorse that needs...

Routine weighs heavily today. Perhaps it’s the turning point on a voyage such as this when time is measured in days before return rather than weeks at sea. Even the meal sittings are feeling a tad lacklustre. ‘How was the trawl?’ or ‘How deep is the next CTD?’ is starting to fall a little flat. It was a bit déjà vu that at the same time of day, at the same angle on the horizon, another fishing boat was identified, bearing the same name as the one intercepted yesterday. This time it is the ‘In Sung No 2’ and, as required, we carry out the same duty of communication. An upshot of the time we spent communicating with the fishing boat yesterday was that the depth data we gathered on the underway data logging system was used to create a new bathymetric chart. That...

86.80033 deg S 54.45187 deg E 3151 meters above sea level Maximum & Minimum temperatures: - 21 to - 30 °C A fundamental approach is to direct all vehicles and modules against the direction where we expect the storms to come from. We consulted the meteorologists at South Pole before we placed our sledges and modules side-by-side with some 50 meters distance between them. Also, to avoid snow drift it is important to get equipment above ground. Most of our gear is carefully strapped down on sledges and thus fine. However, we had to build a berm for one of the vehicles. We decided to use empty fuel drums as the platform (see photo). Thus, we secured the drums and made a decent platform for the TL-6 vehicle in one go. - Jan-Gunnar ...

POLENET is pioneering podcasts on IPY.org.... and IPY.org is rapidly developing to be able to show not only videos, but also audio. Keep checking over the next few weeks... but in the mean-time, enjoy the first POLENET podcast here. All subsequent podcasts can be viewed at the POLENET podcast feed. If you would like to contribute to this material, please email Rhian Salmon, IPY Educati...

The Norwegian Ski Adventure Story –Celebrating The International Polar Day on December 13 2007 The museum celebrated the International Polar Day as a part of a school week at the centre. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday was allocated to secondary schools. The schools had lectures about the situation in polar areas and how people can have influence on the climate. Beforehand, the students were challenged to decorate a Christmas tree with garbage to focus on our consumption right before Christmas (see picture). The students also watched the movie by Al Gore: ”The Inconvenient Truth

Course Announcement International Polar Year IV: Context and Promise Yukon College and University of the Arctic 1 February-30 April 2008 For further information, please go to: http://dl1.yukoncollege.yk.ca/ipy/216info or contact: Amanda Graham Yukon College E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it -------------------- Yukon College and University of the Arctic announce an international offering of the online course, International Polar Year IV: Context and Promise. This second-year-level, multidisciplinary course presents an overview of the historical and scientific context...