Second part of the Arctic Marine Beach Litter expedition At this moment, we are sailing on the Ortelius with Oceanwide Expeditions around the northern tip of Spitsbergen. We are on our way to the next monitoring location of this second part of the Arctic Marine Litter expedition. Like the first…
Monitoring for litter on Poolepynten and Sarstangen shows the ocean pollution of the Gulfstream. On its way to the North, the Gulfstream will pick up any litter item that floats. When these items arrive in the Arctic, they will remain here. This is why the amount of litter in the Arctic is building up every year. As a consequence, the sea around Svalbard ends up becoming the drain hole of the Gulfstream.
– By : Steve Geelhoed – Off survey flight The sun shines over northern Scotland. We are in our hotel in Inverness though. Off effort. Validating data from the last three days of surveying. The wind is too strong to survey. The last days the weather was suitable enough to…
– By: Martine van den Heuvel-Greve – VIP guests The research station of Ny-Ålesund is a popular place for visiting VIP s. Recently Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, and our minister of Foreign Affairs, Bert Koenders, visited Ny-Ålesund. The place is popular because many nations have their own…
– By: Martine van den Heuvel-Greve – Resembling an oil spill We use small crustaceans to test their sensitivity to oil, when dissolved in water, resembling an oil spill at sea. We conducted similar tests in the Netherlands with related Dutch species. The results will tell us whether the tests…
– By: Tinka Murk – The sediment sampler During 2 sampling trips we had the opportunity to collect some deep (300 m) and shallow (30 m) sediment samples with a Van Veen – sampler. With its ‘big mouth’ opened the sampler is lowered. It closes as soon as it bumps…
– By: Isolde Puts – Lab with a view Making long nights in the lab under the nordic midnight sun is not as hard as it sounds. While monitoring our test every half hour throughout the night, we have a view over the harbour area and Kongsfjorden. A group of…