#tan2502 — Public Fediverse posts

We got home yesterday morning… arriving at the harbour heads as dawn breaks is always magical - especially after a long trip. #tan2502 - a busy day followed with heaps of biosecurity and very busy offloading and media stuff.

#oceanography #climate #antarctica

There wasn’t such a media flurry as there have been a few science ships in town in the last few weeks.

we are closing in on home - unfortunately wallowing in 4 m swell from a couple of directions and fog but at least getting further north each day... #TAN2502 #Antarctica (noting that the image I casually grab a section of has #NOAA marked at the bottom 😟 )

We've had science talks all the way back interspersed with other fun stuff - tonite was quiz night. My contribution were questions on #TeTiriti and #SplitEnz (mindful that 70% of the team of from not NZ 😉 )

right at the limit of my iPhone but this #bergoftheday towered - the one next to it looked normal tabular height (there were a line of them) but this one looked like a tall-ship - probably the last one we'll see this trip. There is the possibility they are one berg. We couldn't convince the skipper to steer closer... 😞 #Antarctica #Tan2502

we start the long haul north to Aotearoa in a couple of hours... currently being snowed upon in foggy/misty cloud. #Antarctica #Tan2502

* 1080 Niskin bottles sampled
* around 240 stations
* around 2,500 biological samples
* around 40 camera surveys with 1300 minutes of video
* 1 robot glider mission
* 13 ocean data moorings (in/out/both)
* 12 Argo floats
* 9000 km (on return)

and 20 friends for life...

This was the view for our last night along the #Antarctic coast (The Possession Islands, Ross Sea) - stunning (img: Svenja Halfter) #Tan2502

re-deploying our last sensors for the voyage yesterday - just as the weather turned. It got reasonably windy after this, but by then we were off and away to hide in Robertson Bay.

#Antarctica #Oceanography #TAN2502

After a non-eventful day away from the coast recovering some instruments we headed in to Possession Islands - a pretty forbidding set of rocks - so this was the #BergOfTheDay - it looks nondescript but it is grounded and the tide was ripping past and so the ship was swishing back n forth in the wake as we passed by - and those ice caves would occasionally explode with sea spray if a wave timed it right. We are on the hunt for submarine plumes of groundwater/gasses. #ocean #antarctica #tan2502

we are now just far enough north (72.5S) for sunsets (img Denise Fernandez) #tan2502 #antarctica

Slightly different take on #BergOfTheDay - yesterday we found ourselves travelling in blowing snow/mist and this puppy loomed... we were fine as we could see it on radar well ahead. The response time for a ship to turn is not what you would call rapid. #Iceberg #Antarctica #tan2502

Managed to recover our ocean glider last night after a 10 day mission. 24hr daylight helps - that plus amazing weather. (img : Hana Ishii) You can see the little workboat returning with the glider aboard.

#Antarctic #tan2502 #OceanGlider

not all beer n skittles - Ira and Pame bringing in benthic samples at 3am - headland of Coulman Isl in background. About 30 minutes after this was taken a band of sea ice had us high tailing south only to run into another band blocking our way. Fortunately a passage opened up near the coast and so we scooted thru to open ocean. Felt like we were playing that old snake computer game (img Denise Fernandez) #Antarctica #climate #tan2502

We are poised to head north from Ross Ice Shelf - wonder if I'll ever see it again? Next stop Coulman Isl. Last thing we did was deploy sensors to measure flows right in front of ice - high risk due to all the bergs fanging around. Jasmin & Henk + crew did the deploying - amazing at their jobs. #oceanography #Antarctica #TAN2502

we _have_ been doing more that ogling icebergs and volcanoes - towing a camera system around to map seafloor ecology reveals just this riot of life. #Antarctica #Biodiversity #TAN2502

We made it to the Ross Ice Shelf edge this afternoon. I gave a quick science talk on ice shelves on board when we were an hour away and at the end got to say - "ok go outside an look at a real one - in fact the biggest one". People were suitably blown away - a 40 m high wall of ice that disappeared into the horizon in both directions. #Oceanography #Antarctica #IceShelves #TAN2502

some happy #penguins off Franklin Isl #Antarctica - I'm presuming they are happy - potentially they are unhappy and being chased by the many #Orca cruising by. We are not really here for this trophic level (ie we are thinking about less mobile things) but interested to see what comes up in the #eDNA. (img: Svenja Halfter). #TAN2502 #Oceanography #Climate

I see @wavygk is back in #Antarctica..
Looks like a great trip in good weather so far!
https://mastodon.nz/@wavygk/113880906070510755
[email protected] - Overnight we headed westward and arrived in the early morning at our coastal field site of Wood Bay near Cape Washington, Ross Sea #Antarctica. We could just make out ice, rocks and snow in breaks in the cloud.  The cloud quickly dissipated to reveal the rocky headland of Cape Washington itself as well as Mount Melbourne – something of a Mount Erebus Doppleganger. #TAN2502  It's 2700 m high. (img Denise Fernandez) - now presently seafloor sampling like crazy (not me obvs)

Dropped our little work-boat off, to in-turn drop off an even smaller robot #oceanglider. This is to do buoyancy tests. The team were very well-rugged up. If the tests go ok we'll retrieve the glider and steam south for a few hours then deploy later tonight sending the glider on a 10 day mission to head northwards measuring heat/salt/oxygen flow. #TAN2502 #Antarctica #Oceanography (img: Hana Ishii)

Overnight we headed westward and arrived in the early morning at our coastal field site of Wood Bay near Cape Washington, Ross Sea #Antarctica. We could just make out ice, rocks and snow in breaks in the cloud. The cloud quickly dissipated to reveal the rocky headland of Cape Washington itself as well as Mount Melbourne – something of a Mount Erebus Doppleganger. #TAN2502 It's 2700 m high. (img Denise Fernandez) - now presently seafloor sampling like crazy (not me obvs)

Always nice to get ocean gear back aboard - these floats hold lines of instruments that have been sampling at a location that is around 500 m deep. They were there for two years measuring heat, salinity, oxygen and currents in a region that is essentially the out flow from the planet's lungs (ie where lots of ocean oxygenation happens) - water temps around -1.5 C. Air temp a toasty -1 C. #Antarctica #Oceanography #TAN2502 (imgs Denise Fernandez)

this is where we are FYI #TAN2502 #Antarctica

If people want a bit more info on the voyage that I'm posting pix from its here (the regular narrative updates are listed down the bottom) #Oceanography #TAN2502 - I expect the narrative will slowly build unless things get too busy. I've started doing this over the last few voyages and expeditions as it is useful for us and a wider subset of people seem to enjoy the looser writing style.

https://niwa.co.nz/vessels/voyages/ross-sea-voyage-2025

#BergOfTheDay came through quite early 0630 (img Nicole Hill)... and then later we came through a whole slew of bergs and then a band of sea ice, then penguins... many of the team were seeing these for the first time. So lots of happy, smiling peeps #Antarctica #Iceberg #TAN2502 #Oceanography

Also exciting - we are recovering sensors that listen for #whale calls - this is the first of three. It was the last task before we crossed the Antarctic Circle. These have sat on the seafloor at around 1km depth for 2 years. #Oceanography #TAN2502

First #BergOfTheDay at around 64South. It’s probably around 30m high above the water. Just picture what lies beneath. #TAN2502 #Ocean

We had a fun Crossing the Line ceremony - the ship I'm on celebrates crossing 60S whereas I'd been expecting it to be the Antarctic Circle (66S) in a few days time. First-timers had to kiss a fish and receive a certificate. I enjoyed writing the Alt-txt for this one 😃 #ocean #60S #TAN2502

As we have around 7 days steaming just to get to the Ross Sea I started up regular talks for the team. Hugh Carter from the UK Natural History Museum gave a great talk on starfish with some lovely drawings he whipped up on an iPad. #Taxonomy is taxonomy! and Hugh presented it well. 😃 A whole bunch of disciplines on board and we lapped it up (even the physicists)! The talk is being given in the small library on the ship (photo Alina Madita Wieczorek). #ocean #science #TAN2502

Its a little bit subtle - but the crew have just deployed an #Argo float. A basic ocean robot that has been a game changer in understanding the ocean. There are around 4000 in the ocean at any one time and they last for years - profiling up and down over the upper 2 km of the ocean sending back "ocean weather" data by satellite. See https://argo.ucsd.edu/ #oceanography #TAN2502 (photo Denise Fernandez)

really nice seeing the best wishes from everyone here - kia ora!

A good day for steaming - we are somewhere to the east of Ōtautahi Christchurch heading straight south.

Although saying that, the occasional wave pops up. Most people have surfaced for the day. (image Ira Cooke)

#Antarctica #Oceans #Climate #TAN2502

we're off - left Wellington Te Whanganui a Tara @ 1600. I gave a departing karakia my best shot - people were polite🤓 . Touch wood but we look to be shooting the gap between two storm systems. When I said that to a media person yesterday they wanted to know if the storms were unusual and I pointed out it was the Southern Ocean and the lull was the unusual thing. Saying all that we are now in 3m swell so its not exactly flat but most people came to dinner! #climate #ocean #TAN2502 #Antarctica