Todays' Sitrep proclaims success. 'CEAMARC sampling officially finished at 8 minutes past midnight. Overall, 82 different sites were occupied during CEAMARC, with samples collected from at least 78 sites; well in excess of the 67 sites we had hoped for.' We are one of three ships working in this part of Antarctica collecting marine life for the Collaborative East Antarctic Marine Census (CEAMARC). Our focus is on the benthic organisms below 200 metres. We have been looking at biodiversity in a region never before investigated so comprehensively and can now offer another jigsaw piece of information to complete the larger Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML) picture. Our grand tally is 106 trawls and 114 grab or box-corer deployments. The CEA...

Because everything is going so well and we are on target with our sampling, a window of opportunity has opened. We are going to have lunch beside the giant iceberg while the crew in the Fast Rescue Craft (FRC) takes a small party to collect some special water samples. When they return we will have a group photo on the helideck. Looks good on paper. The berg has a name and a history. B-17A calved from the Ross Ice Shelf in April 2000 and appears to have become grounded here in 2006. It's 35 km long. Toby measured its height using the sextant and found it was 43 metres high. From the chair in my cabin the iceberg makes up a strip across the middle third of my porthole. Testing the waters around B-17A is Tank's extra project. He wants to find out if icebergs ar...

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...

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...

Press release Exploration of lake hidden beneath Antarctica's ice sheet begins 15 January 2008 PR No. 1/2008 A four-man science team led by British Antarctic Survey's (BAS) Dr Andy Smith has begun exploring an ancient lake hidden deep beneath Antarctica's ice sheet. The lake - the size of Lake Windermere (UK) - could yield vital clues to life on Earth, climate change and future sea-level rise. Glaciologist Dr Smith and his colleagues from the Universities of Edinburgh and Northumbria are camped out at one of the most remote places on Earth conducting a series of experiments on the ice. He says, "This is the first phase of what we think is an incredibly exciting project. We know the lake is 3.2km beneath the ice; l...