R/v Oceanograf has set off on a 33-day expedition beyond the Arctic Circle, to Bodø. Over the next few weeks, the UG ship will cross the Baltic Sea and the North Sea before finally entering the waters of the Norwegian Sea. In the meantime, an international research team from the SEA-EU universities will carry out diverse research activities. The scientists from Institute of Oceanology PAN will carry out similar research on their ship r/v Oceania.
Gdańsk—Kiel–Bergen—Bodø—Malmö—Gdańsk this is the route of the BaltArctic Research Cruise. After those 33 days UG catamaran will have sailed 2,900 nautical miles, visited 5 cities and stoped at 15 research positions.
‘The BaltArctic Research Cruise is a triumph of European cooperation, while also being a continuation of the Polish tradition of polar research’, says Vicerector for International Cooperation UG Professor Anna Jurkowska-Zeidler. – ‘We are sailing on the last wave of the Baltic to see how far is the influence of our sea. We are doing this together as an alliance of European universities, but also as Polish marine research institutions.’
R/v Oceanograf has sailed from the port of Dalmor in Gdynia on June 3 at 12:00 am, and will not return until to Poland until July 5. During this time, scientists from all over Europe will conduct research on board of University of Gdańsk’s ship. At one stage of the expedition, r/v Oceanograf will sail together with IO PAN’s ship r/v Oceania. The joint cruises of the two Polish research vessels Oceanograf and Oceania – are a unique opportunity to combine the scientific activities carried out by both institutions and utilise the full potential offered by both vessels.
‘It is very important to show Norwegians the potential of Polish marine research. The fact that two Polish research vessels will enter the port of Bodø is a really strong sign of that,’ says Director of the Institute of Oceanology PAN Professor Jan Marcin Węsławski. ‘The cooperation between our institutions has actually always been there, most of our staff graduated from oceanography at UG. We all know each other very well, we conduct many joint projects, and now for the first time we will be sailing in a joint venture.’
The scope of research involves tracing water masses flowing from the Baltic Sea to the Arctic Ocean and tracking chemical substances (e.g. microplastics, heavy metals) and living organisms present in them. During the cruise, research and observations will be carried out in parallel on both ships. It is planned to measure the properties of seawater and aerosols and to take samples of water and marine organisms for further laboratory studies. This will provide answers to questions about the extent of Baltic-derived brackish-water organisms distribution in the Nordic Seas characterised by full salinity, as well as the information on the nature of the northward outflow of Baltic waters and how far north they are still detectable.
‘I will study phytoplankton, which means different species in the northern seas and different in the Baltic. I am particularly interested in toxic species: in the Baltic they are mainly cyanobacteria, while in the high seas and oceans they include dinoflagellates and diatoms,’ says one of the members of the research team, Justyna Kobos, PhD. – ‘I’m really excited about this cruise as this is the first research venture on such a magnitude that I’ve ever been part of.’
The unique perspective on the scientists’ activities, life on board, and all the events of the voyage will be provided by Zygmunt Miłoszewski – the author of several crime novels and winner of the 2014 ‘Polityka’ Passport, who will keep a ship’s logbook.
The next stop of r/v Oceanograf is Kiel, where scientists from SEA-EU partner universities will board the ship. Residents of the German city will be able to tour the most advanced research vessel sailing on the Baltic Sea, while students of Kiel University will have an opportunity to take part in a workshop on creative writing led by Zygmunt Miloszewski.
