Sunday 13 January 2008 à 16:11
Unusual fishes !
Sophie Mouge. Correspondent aboard the Aurora Australis
We are in trouble ! The sea-ice cover in the water off Dumont D’Urville is at time very important. At 4 am we spot a wall of tabular icebergs in the distance !
Sunday 13 January 2008 à 15:57
Position of Aurora Australis
Sophie Mouge. Correspondent aboard the Aurora Australis
FROM: Martin Riddle
DATE: 13/01/08
REPORT (SITREP) NO.: 328
UNIVERSAL TIME: 0100
LOCAL (SHIP) TIME: 1200
AUSTRALIAN EASTERN STANDARD TIME: 1200
POSITION: -66 03.7S, 141 17.7E
HEADING: 172
CURRENT SPEED (KNOTS): 13.3 kts
DISTANCE TO NEXT WAYPOINT (NAUTICAL MILES): n/a
DISTANCE COVERED LAST 24
HOURS (NAUTICAL MILES): 116.1 Nm
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Mostly low cloud 6/8ths
cover, moderate to good visibility, wind 18 kts from 115T gusting to 22 kts
AIR TEMPERATURE: -1.0
SEA TEMPERATURE: -0.5
SEA CONDITIONS: Slight to
moderate seas and low E'ly swell 0.5 m
ICE CONDITIONS: Frequent large
icebergs otherwise open water.
REMARKS: This second phase of CEAMARC benthic sampling started very well
with 6 stations completed in the last 24 hrs. We have now caught up with the
planned sampling schedule, having 24% of sites left to do and 25% of the
total time allocated to CEAMARC to do them in. If the weather remains kind
to us we should complete the schedule as planned. The only slight variation
being the re-location of some sites to avoid dense pack-ice on longitude
140E directly north of the French research station at Dumont D'Urville. We
have also re-aligned some sites, on the basis of very accurate bathymetry
obtained using a multi-beam swath mapping depth sounder, to get better
series of samples from shallow to deep. Yesterday's samples from 400m, 800m
and 1100m were a very interesting contrast to those from a similar depth
series reported in sitrep 321, which at 800m was dominated by a colourful
garden of filter-feeding coralline species. Yesterday's 800m site had a very
sparse covering of surface-living filter-feeders, such as sponges and
bryozoans, but had very large numbers of Macrourus whitsoni or rat-tails, a
common fish from these depths throughout the world. The sea-bed photographs
indicated a lot of 'marine snow' (organic particulates) in the water and a
piscean wall of mouths - fish waiting on the seabed for food to be washed
past them by the currents. So although only 20 miles apart and sharing the
common characteristics of very high productivity and biomass the benthic
fauna at these sites were intriguingly different.
Regards, Martin and Sarah.
Sunday 13 January 2008 à 15:54
Position of Astrolabe at 11:29 UTC
Anne Goffart. Correspondent aboard the Astrolabe
66°54 S
142°27 E
Sunday 13 January 2008 à 13:22
A touch of nostalgia.
Stéphanie Pavoine. Based in Dumont D’Urville station
I slept so much yesterday that I awoke, slightly ashamed, at 6h. I treat myself to a real breakfast.
Sunday 13 January 2008 à 11:43
Data for the Aurora Australis
Sophie Mouge. Correspondent aboard the Aurora Australis
Position of the icebreaker:
latitude: 65°15,769’ S
longitude: 141°17,882’ E
Wind:
direction: E
speed: 18 knots
Water temperature: -0,2 °C
Air temperature: 0,2 °C
Atmospheric pressure: 992 HPa
Relative humidity: 75 %
UV-B: 3,9 W/m²
Water depth: 241 meters
Sunset: 00h27/ sunrise: 3h00
