“Deep down within the Misty Mountains lived a creature named Gollum…”, a phrase which may sound familiar to many, starting the epic adventure of the Lord of the Rings saga, but not exclusively this one… In the late 70’s, the British marine geologist Neil Kenyon found this a most appropriate name for a submarine channel…
Today is the last day of our unfortunate early journey back to Zeebrugge. Just like on land, sundays on RV Belgica start with an extensive breakfast, including croissants and hot chocolate. Afterwards, being a sunny and almost windless day, the bridge deck is the place-to-be to hang out with a coffee and enjoy the healthy…
For two months we have been preparing the VLIZ ROV for this opportunity during the Gollum campaign on RV Belgica. She really needed to be in great shape. We were about to kiss the limits of her maximum depth rating. After 2 test dives we could clearly see that “Suzee” was eager for more. Obviously…
Today it’s my turn to write a daily report on this survey. My name is Wim Versteeg and, like Thomas and Robin, I am working for the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ). Before starting at the VLIZ, I was working at Ghent University for 27 years as a geophysicist for acquisition and processing of high resolution…
Fred Durst put it nicely into words in the beginning of “rollin’”: “Keep on rollin’ baby, you know what time it is”. And gosh, did we know what time it was. Predictions warned us in advance that swell waves of up to 2 meters were going to hit us on Wednesday and Thursday. The result:…
Hi, I’m Bernard. I am the Commanding Officer of the research vessel A962 Belgica. Together with the other 15 crew members of the Belgian Navy, our job is to bring the scientific team where they have to work and provide them with all kind of support to execute their job in an efficient, secure and pleasant way. We have…
The Biology Conservation Unit (RBINS) has collected presence and abundance data on seabirds and marine mammals in the Southern Ocean, the Arctic Ocean and since recently in the Atlantic, the North Sea and the central Pacific Ocean. The aim of this long term program is to monitor marine top predators during transect on board research…
Today’s blog will be covered by myself, Luke O’Reilly. I am an Irish PhD student from University College Cork. My project focuses on the temporal variation of cold-water coral habitats from the Porcupine Bank Canyon. I am relatively new to the postgraduate scene; I started my research in January 2018. Although my project is based…
Since yesterday, we are anchored at Bantry Bay, Ireland, hiding for the bad weather at the working location. Over here it is dead calm and even a bit warm, with the land sheltering us from the wind and swell, which makes it hard to imagine the harsh situation at our study sites. I am Ruud,…
Hi all! I am Shan Liu, the Chinese volunteer of the team… I graduated as geological engineer at China University of Geoscience in Wuhan, and am currently doing a PhD at Ghent University. My research area is marine geology and geophysics. During this survey, my duty is to help to acquire single channel seismic data…
From Wednesday 23 May 2018 until Friday 8 June 2018, RV Belgica will be surveying the upper reaches of the Gollum Channel System, located on the eastern slope of the Porcupine Seabight, offshore Ireland. The shipboard scientific team consists out of 10 scientists and technicians from Ghent University (RCMG, Dept. of Geology), Flanders Marine Institute…
For our last two days on the field, we went back to lakes. On our to-do list was Lago Plomo and, because we had a reliable boat, a nice running engine, and a few hours to spare, we decided to add an extra glacier-influenced lake: Lago Bayo. During these two days we stayed at Puerto…
