by Ria Olivier | Aug 23, 2022 | Current Event, Gough Island, News, Overwintering Team, SA Agulhas II, SANAP, Science, Southern Ocean, Stations, Take-Over Operations, Tristan da Cunha
The S.A. Agulhas II departed from East Pier, V&A Waterfront on her annual Gough Island relief voyage on Saturday, 20 August 2022.
On the way to Gough Island, the vessel will stop at Tristan da Cunha, offloading Tristan passengers and cargo. This stopover will approximately be 60 hours. From here the vessel will depart to Gough Island. Passengers will disembark and cargo will be offloaded with helicopters. Scientific projects will commence.
Onboard are the DFFE Logistics team, the 68th Gough Island Overwintering team (9 team members), the National Department of Public Works (NDPW) maintenance team, Helicopter crew, Scientific personnel, and Tristan passengers.
Logistics Team
Department of Forestry Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE)
Directorate: Southern Oceans & Antarctic Support
Management, logistics and support for this voyage |
| Departmental Co-ordinator (DCO) | Ms Nomzi Ndzandzeka |
| Assistant DCO | Mr Zukisa Kuse |
| Technical Section | Mr Willem Boshoff |
| Medical Doctor | Dr MC Taggart |
| Waste Technician | Mr Tatulo Fipaza |
68th Gough Island Overwintering Team (Click here for profile pictures of the team members)
| Medical Orderly/Team Leader | Mr Joyfull Ntobeko Gaju |
| Diesel Mechanic | Mr Sibusiso Maduna |
Communications Engineer/
Deputy Team Leader | Mr Mayembe Kapenda |
| Electrical/Base Engineer | Mr Eddy Mfezeko Xaki |
| Senior Meteorology Technician | Mr Philani Siyabonga Ngcobo |
| Assistant Meteorology Technician | Mr Khuliso Collen Maphaha |
| Assistant Meteorology Technician | Mr Mphumzi Brooklyn Zilindile |
| RSPB Field Assistant | Dr Lucy Dorman |
| RSPB Field Assistant | Ms Rebekah Goodwill |
National Department of Public Works Maintenance Team
| Project Manager Leader | Mr Takalani Mudau |
Refrigeration Mechanical
& Deputy Leader | Mr William E Kriege |
| Carpenter | Mr A Petersen |
| Carpenter | Mr E Roberts |
| Carpenter | Mr ME Gazi |
| Bricklayer | Mr MI Jantjies |
| Plumber | Mr M Maluka |
| Plumber | Mr MW Samsodien |
| Plumber | Ms N Sogoni |
| Painter | Ms B Nelani |
| Crane Technician | Mr James Page |
| Crane Technician | Mr L Pierce |
| Mechanical | Mr J Zeelie |
| Mechanical | Mr MLG Porta Nova |
| Mechanical | Mr B Mpengesi |
| Mechanical | Mr LN Thomas |
Helicopter Crew
| Team Leader & Engineer | Mr Raymond van der Watt |
| Captain | Mr Waldo Venter |
| Captain | Mr Eugene Viljoen |
| First Officer | Mr Mukapitendwa Khalushi |
| First Officer | Mr Jason Abrey |
| Engineer | Mr Daniel Carstens |
Engineer Engine/
HLO/Crewman | Mr Warren Vogt |
| EngineerCrewman | Mr Eduan Teich |
| EngineerCrewman | Mr Jodi Brophy |
| Fire Fighter | Mr Zakariah Johnson |
Scientific fieldwork planned for the 2022 take-over
| South African Weather Service (SAWS) |
| Atmosphere and Ocean Surface Research |
| Group Leader | Mr. Julian Grace |
|
| Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) |
| Monitor trends and changes in water quality, provide guidance and support |
| Group Leader | Ms Silindokuhle Ndlela |
|
| Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) |
| Gough Island Restoration Programme |
| Group Leader | Dr Antjie Steinfurth |
|
| South African National Space Agency (SANSA) |
| Polar Space Weather Studies |
| Group Leader | Mr Christopher Gray |
|
| University of Fort Hare |
| Landscape and climate interactions (LCI) |
| Group Leader | Dr Elizabeth Rudolph |
Featured Image: Gough Island station (Credit: Julius Klette).
Anche Louw, Antarctic Legacy of South Africa, 23 August 2022
by Ria Olivier | Aug 17, 2022 | Antarctica, News, Research, SA Agulhas II, SANAP, SANAP Student, Science, Southern Ocean, sub-Antarctic
“SCAR’s mission is to advance Antarctic research, including observations from Antarctica, and to promote scientific knowledge, understanding and education on any aspect of the Antarctic region. To this end, SCAR is charged with the initiation and international co-ordination of Antarctic and Southern Ocean research beneficial to global society. One of the most effective ways to do this is to bring researchers together to share their latest results, discuss new ideas, and provide opportunities to develop new projects” – www.scar.org
SCAR expanded its biennial business meetings to include an Open Science Conference (OSC). This year’s open science conference was held from 1 – 10 August 2022, hosted by India. It made it possible for participants and attendees to discuss current results and develop future projects. The conference included plenary, parallel and satellite events, as well as workshops. Business meetings of the science groups were held before the open science conference.
South Africans participated and attended various sessions during the conference (see details below):
- Keynote speaker Katye Altieri: “Stable isotopes as a tracer of reactive nitrogen emissions and aerosol formation in the Southern Ocean”.(link)
- Bettine van Vuuren chaired a mini-symposium.
- Christel Hansen, Mia Wege, Geoff Grantham, and Charne Lavery were session convenors.
- The business meetings were attended by Bettine van Vuuren, Sarah Fawcett, Ria Olivier, Christel Hansen, Anche Louw, Charney Lavery, Geoff Grantham, Thulani Makhalanyane and Werner Nel.
Presentations delivered:
- Geoff Grantham: The Age And Chemistry Of Granitic Gneisses From The Western H.U.Sverdrupfjella, Maud Terrane, Western Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica. (link)
- Ria Olivier: Digging into the Past; An archive as a tool to compile and establish a timeline of human impact in our polar heritage (link); Collaboration of South African Researchers in an Extreme Cold Environment. (link)
- Marcel du Plessis: Insights from the SO-CHIC Expedition: what have we done and where are we now? (link)
- Morgan Raath-Krüger: Do Anisotropic Processes Influence Fine-Scale Spatial GeneticStructure Of A Keystone Sub-Antarctic Plant Species? (link)
- Charne Lavery: Antarctica, Africa and the Arts (link)
- Adrienne van Eeden Wharton: On Aftermaths and Afterlives, Afterimages and Aftersounds: Mourning-As-Witnessing Ecological Destruction in the SouthernOcean/S
- Daniela Monsanto: Landscape Genetics Of A Springtail Endemic To Marion Island (link)
- Sophie Kohler: Ice in the Southern Imagination (link)
- Pedro Lebre: Uncovering The Unexplored: The Microbial Ecology Of Sub-AntarcticIsland Soils (link)
E-Posters:
- Liezel Rudolph: A geospatial database for the sub-Antarctic Prince Edward Islands (link)
- Geoff Grantham: The Kuunga Accretionary Complex of Sverdrupfjella, western Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica (link)
- Shilpa Parbhu: Understanding how an invasive springtail adapted to cold sub-Antarctic Marion Island (link)
- Trevor McIntyre: The ontogeny of southern elephant seal foraging migration strategies: finding their way as they go (link)
Antarctic Legacy of South Africa communicated South Africa’s participation and conference-related announcements on Twitter (47 Tweets). A highlight was the session on the discovery of Shackleton’s Endurance, where South Africa was frequently mentioned during the talk.
What is to come:
- SCAR Delegates Meeting (5-7 September 2022)
- All the best to Bettine van Vuuren and Tracy Klarenbeek attending as SA representatives.
All posters and presentations can be found on the ALSA digital archive.
The conference virtual site is still available – if you have missed out on any sessions you can listen to the recordings, and all abstracts and posters can still be downloaded.
Ria Olivier, Antarctic Legacy of South Africa, 17 August 2022.
by Ria Olivier | Jul 25, 2022 | Announcement, Antarctica, News, Newsletters>SANAE Newsletters, Overwintering Team, SANAE, SANAP, Stations, Team member, Team Photo
In this edition:
- The team writes about the last sunset before winter
- Meet the most experienced member of the expedition team, diesel mechanic, John Manyatsa Skelete
- Weather: May and June 2022 – maximum and minimum pressure, temperature, humidity, wind gust.
Click here to read/download the MAY/JUNE 2022 newsletter!
Message from the SANAE 61 team leader on Antarctica, JC Laubscher:
“It is going well here at SANAE IV, it is just insanely cold outside (-40 degrees average). Luckily, the sun has peeked over the horizon today, after 33 days of absence. This is another expedition milestone reached! We’ve also passed the halfway mark of this expedition and we’re looking forward to the second half and of course summer!”
VIDEO: Click here to see what happens when you throw out a bucket of boiling water when it’s ~ -30°C outside.
Click here to view all the newsletters SANAE 61 has published to this date.
Anche Louw, Antarctic Legacy of South Africa, 25 July 2022
by Ria Olivier | Jul 15, 2022 | Current Event, News, Research, SA Agulhas II, SA Polar Research Infrastructure, SAPolarRI, Science, Southern Ocean, sub-Antarctic
| TEAM | FE |
| Project name | Seasonal iron speciation in the Southern Ocean |
| Principal Investigator 1 | Tommy Ryan-Keogh | Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) |
| Principal Investigator 2 and onboard team leader | Thato Mtshali | Department of Forestry, Fisheries & the Environment (DFFE) |
Onboard FE team members:
| Team Member | Role | Affiliation |
| Thato Mtshali | Onboard Team Leader | DFFE |
| Natasha van Horsten | Postdoc | CSIR/UCT |
| Gareth Kiviets | Technician | DFFE |
| Gemma Portlock | PhD | University of Liverpool |
The project description as per the sailing orders for the SCALE Winter Cruise of 2022:
The overarching goal of the project is to improve our understanding of the natural complex biogeochemistry of iron in terms of sources, sinks and internal cycling on a seasonal scale in the Southern Ocean, in both the open ocean and naturally fertilised regions downstream of sub-Antarctic islands.
This morning, in the hangar of the RV S.A. Agulhas II, the South African Polar Research Infrastructure (SAPRI) trainees and the Mercury team got the opportunity to learn more about the sampling process used for all projects requiring extremely pure sampling conditions, such as the Fe-project. The experienced Dr Thato Mtshali explained how the CTD rosette is loaded with sampling bottles. The SAPRI trainees had the opportunity to assist in this process.
Images supplied by Susanne Fietz, PI and onboard team leader of the MERCURY team – to be introduced next.
Anche Louw, Antarctic Legacy of South Africa, 15 July 2022
by Ria Olivier | Jul 14, 2022 | Current Event, News, Research, SA Agulhas II, SA Polar Research Infrastructure, SANAP, SAPolarRI, Science, Southern Ocean, STEM
Through the South African Polar Research Infrastructure (SAPRI), the current SCALE-WIN22 (21-day) cruise, onboard the RV S.A. Agulhas II, is offering polar science training to 8 young individuals from South African universities not historically involved in polar sciences (or involved but in a small extent) or perhaps holding degrees not historically considered to be included in polar sciences.
They will get the opportunity to job-shadow members of the various research teams during onboard activities and get first-hand experience in polar sciences, by assisting with sampling. They will learn more about polar sciences through the onboard seminars delivered during the voyage.
Meet the 8 South African Polar Research Infrastructure (SAPRI) Trainees:
Pre-voyage logistics for the trainees were handled by the acting manager of SAPRI, Prof Juliet Hermes (Manager: South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON) Egagasini node).
Read more about SCALEwin22 here!
Anche Louw, Antarctic Legacy of South Africa, 14 July 2022
by Ria Olivier | Jul 12, 2022 | Current Event, News, Oceanography, Research, SA Agulhas II, SA Polar Research Infrastructure, SANAP, SANAP Student, SAPolarRI, Science, Southern Ocean, STEM
SCALE (Southern oCean seAsonaL Experiment) Winter 2022 Expedition (SCALE-WIN22) onboard the RV S.A. Agulhas II
This dedicated science cruise is funded by the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) and the National Research Foundation (NRF) in support of the scientific community involved in Southern Ocean projects (South African National Antarctic Programme – SANAP and other fundings). The South African Polar Research Infrastructure (SAPRI) and the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) facilitated the coordination of logistics.
This is a continuation of the SCALE coordinated effort (Southern oCean seAsonaL Experiment) proposed by the South African scientific community as a bottom-up experiment.
“SCALE-WIN22 will be a 21 days cruise of intensive sampling of the ocean-atmosphere- sea ice processes in the Antarctic polar zone. Multidisciplinary measurements of physical and biogeochemical properties of the ocean and sea ice will be performed in a set of process stations in the outer and inner MIZ”.
Departure: 11 July 2022
ETA back in Cape Town: 31 July 2022
Area of operation: The S.A. Agulhas II will operate from Cape Town to the Marginal Ice Zone (MIZ) along the Good Hope Line.
Provisional map of the track and stations.
Chief Scientists:
| Prof Marcello Vichi (UCT, on board) | Dr Sarah Fawcett (UCT, on land) |
| |
This cruise involves 13 national and 4 international research projects:
These projects will be introduced throughout the course of the cruise.
The number of passengers onboard:
84 passengers onboard the vessel. This number includes the 8 South African Polar Research Infrastructure (SAPRI) trainees.
National and international scientific institutions involved:
1. South African Polar Research Infrastructure (SAPRI) and South African Environmental Network (SAEON)
2. University of Cape Town (UCT)
3. Stellenbosch University (SU)
4. South African Weather Service (SAWS)
5. Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT)
6. Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (Southern Ocean Carbon-Climate Observatory – SOCCO)
7. Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE)
8. University of Pretoria (UP)
9. Nelson Mandela University (NMU)
10. Representatives from the University of South Africa (UNISA), Rhodes University (RU), University of Kwa-Zulu Natal (UKZN), University of the Free State (UFS), Walter Sisulu University (WSU)
11. University of Gothenburg, Sweden
12. British Antarctic Survey, UK
13. University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
14. The University of Melbourne, Australia
15. University of East Anglia, UK
16. Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography (MIO), France
17. CNR, Italy
18. University of Tasmania, Australian Antarctic Division, Australia
19. Aalto University, Finland
20. Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finland
21. SYKE, Finland
22. Alfred Wegener Institute, Germany
East Pier, Port of Cape Town. Cruise participants arriving from the quarantine facility. Only participants with negative Covid-19 test results will be allowed onboard.
The offical cruise hashtag to be followed: #SCALEwin2022
Anche Louw, Antarctic Legacy of South Africa, 12 July 2022
