Plancius took a turn and headed straight north. After half a week on board, the atmosphere among the passengers has become more relaxed, interactions have moved past the small talk and into enjoying each other’s company. Martine was invited to give a presentation on the project to inform the passengers…
The weather turned and the sea got rough. The doctor on-board was quite busy giving out ear patches for sea sickness. So far we have managed to sample two beaches on this trip, and we are quite happy with that. Along with our partners in other parts of Svalbard, we…
Our four days in Longyearbyen consisted of laundry, sorting samples, preparing for the coming second half of the expedition, and much anticipated showering! We also exchanged our team member Hans for Kimberley, an expert in marine aliens and biosecurity from New Zealand. We were now a four-women research squad, ready…
Alas! We remain unshowered! Our luck improved since our first sampling attempt on Edgeøya, and finally we were beginning to fill our sample bottle storage box. As our boat made its way through glassy waters surrounded by steep, scoured cliffs where landslides had exposed the permafrost in some areas, we…
– 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…