Antarctica

It’s day three at sea and things are all humming along nicely. We’ve just passed 50 degrees south and any faint sighting of the mainland is long gone. The next time we will see land will probably be the Balleny Islands in a couple of days.

Our 42 day adventure to Antarctica aboard NIWA’s RV Tangaroa is just beginning! My name is Blake Hornblow and I am a 2014 Blake NIWA Science Ambassador.

Being selected as one of the two 2014 Blake NIWA Science ambassadors is the most incredible opportunity ever. I still remember the phone call at uni late into second semester last year.

NIWA photographer, Dave Allen, has captured this time-lapse footage of RV Tangaroa departing Wellington yesterday morning.

New Zealand’s news website Stuff.co.nz has created a stunning interactive feature profiling the New Zealand-Australia Antarctic Ecosystems Voyage 2015.

National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), Antarctica New Zealand and the Australian Antarctic Division are undertaking a six-week research initiative in the Southern Ocean on areas of importance to humpback and blue whales and Antarctic toothfish.

A selection of images relating to the New Zealand-Australia Antarctic Ecosystems Voyage. We will be adding images from the voyage as they are sent back from the vessel.

Read about the science that will be undertaken during the voyage.

Read details about the aims of the voyage and find information about the scientists and crew on board.

Data collected continuously from this voyage will fill a critical knowledge gap, helping scientists to produce better global climate and oceanographic models to ultimately improve weather forecasting.

This research will investigate whether Antarctic silverfish eggs are spawned elsewhere or whether there is a mass migration of silverfish to their coastal spawning sites each winter.

Commercial toothfish fishing in the Ross Sea has the potential to affect some demersal (bottom-dwelling) fish species in the region through by-catch and ecosystem changes.