![]() ![]() “To all this, we must add the pre-embarkment quarantine time in Ushuaia,” adds the researcher who, “unfortunately due to other professional responsibilities” will collaborate in the campaign from the ground.įor their part, “Antonio and Paulo were in Ushuaia quarantining before embarking in the last hours on the Hesperides. ![]() All participants had to pass a strict medical check-up and, of course, submit proff of the complete covid vaccination schedule (in addition to others such as tetanus, typhoid feverand hepatitis) “, lists Sobrino, who is grateful for the role of the UVigo Medical Service that helped them throughout this process. “In Antarctic expeditions medical requirements are stricter than in other expeditions due to the uniqueness, danger and isolation ofthe study area. A new cruse marked by covidĪs in the first Antom expedition, the covid conditioned this campaign that has just begun. Antom-II continues the study started in December 2020 from the port of Vigo, in which air and water samples were collected in the Atlantic Ocean to determine how chemical pollutants were transported to the Southern Ocean. The expedition will sail aboard the Hesperides to the Bellinghausen Sea in Antarctica, where research staff will work for a month to find out “what effects organic matter of human origin has on Antarctic microbial communities and assess the ability of bacteria to degrade this pollutant” says project coordinator and IDAEA-CSIC researcher Jordi Dachs. “These results are highly important as phytoplankton, despite their small size, form the basis of the marine food chain and are an active part of the global carbon cycle, capturing atmospheric CO2 and thereby contributing to climate regulation on the planet,” said the UVigo researcher. She explains that UVigo researchers are responsible for the study of these compounds of human origin on the abundance, composition and metabolism of phytoplankton. “The Antom project aims to study the effect of emerging pollutants and anthropogenic semi-volatile organic compounds on the environment and marine organisms, and among the latter, the project focuses on the effect on microscopic organisms, including phytoplankton and bacterioplankton,” said Sobrino. The results of the study, which was conducted for the first time last year, will help to understand the effects of these chemical pollutants on Antarctic ecosystems. They will obtain water and air samples in the Southern Ocean to analyze anthropogenic contamination. Researchers from UVigo, IDEAE-CSIC, ICM-CSIC and IQOG-CSIC departed recently from the Argentinian port of Ushuaia aboard the oceanographic research vessel Hesperides. The goal of this expedition is to study the impact of pollutants of human origin in Antarctica. The technicians of the Marine Research Center (CIM) Antonio Fuentes Lema and Paulo Alcaraz Rocha, and the professor and researcher of the Department of Ecology and Animal Biology Cristina Sobrino García, are UVigo staff who along with CSIC scientists participate in the Antom-II expedition. Just before blowing one last blast of icy air above the surface of the water, one of the whales rolled onto her side and peered up at us, then sank back seamlessly into the water and disappeared from sight.Aboard the ORV Hesperides, the expedition departed from the Argentinian port of Ushuaia These whales spent over half an hour weaving themselves beneath our hull and around the bow of our ship. Many whales seem to avoid human activity, while others like the whales that visited us, seem curious. The various frequencies at which these sounds are produced likely impact many different species and may make it impossible for whales to communicate with each other or navigate through the great blue distances they regularly travel in search of food and mates. We cannot be sure what kind of effect engine noise, sonar blasts and other human produced noise pollution has on minkes and other whales. They produce very loud sounds, but at frequencies about 10 times lower than those at which humans communicate. Today, minkes are the most abundant of the baleen whales and still hunted worldwide. Minkes are the smallest of the baleen whales measuring just 25-30 feet (7.8-9m) long, and weighing about 6-7.5 tons (5.4-6.8tons). Instead they have long, course plates in their mouths that they use for straining water from clumps of plankton and fish. Two minke whales (Rorcual Aliblanco) (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) were circling our ship and ducking under the blue chunks of ice. A close view of the minke whale spotted this morningĮach morning after my watch I try to catch a few hours of sleep, but this morning when my professor knocked on my cabin door to tell me that there was a whale outside, I jumped up out of my sleep and nearly fell to the floor from my top bunk.
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