Life aboard the RV Polarstern, one of the world’s most renowned research vessels, is like nothing else. The smell of the ocean, the hum of the engines, and the endless horizon stretching out in every direction—it’s a thrilling and awe-inspiring experience. But beyond the romance and adventure lies a critical mission: to understand the ocean […]

Svenja burst into the red lounge, where a group of scientists were having a post-prandial chat. The alien announcement was irresistible, and we trooped down to the lab where Svenja’s fresh multinet haul was awaiting earthly attention.  Under the microscope we saw live zooplankton hopping, spiralling, leapfrogging and swimming through the sample. Then, carefully teased […]

You dive down to a thousand meters depth and cruise around, letting the currents take you where they want. Every now and then a fish may curiously appear, then swim into the deep blue, leaving you alone in your cold, dark wet world. The only times you see light are when you rise to the […]

On a rolling ship, fighting seasickness, even finding their way around the cavernous Polarstern can seem a challenge. The first two days have been spent learning the rules on board – and here are many of them! “There’s a strict hierarchy on board, with all the crew having their own tasks. There’s even a correct […]

… something special must be happening. And it is – the next “WASCAL Floating University” is about to start. After we had our premiere last year with the research vessel Maria S. Merian (MSM106), we have another premiere this year with the next cohort of students: This year our Floating University will take place on […]

After the cruise MSM106 some of the WASCAL students spent some time in Germany at different institutes to work on their Master thesis. Here are some impressions from the students. Nach der Expedition MSM106 verbrachten einige der WASCAL-Studierenden einige Zeit in Deutschland an verschiedenen Instituten, um an ihrer Masterarbeit zu arbeiten. Hier sind einige Eindrücke […]

Quantifying the biomass of gelatinous organisms, especially those from the deep sea, is a big challenge. Since gelatinous organisms are so fragile, they get destroyed easily by nets and thus we only find unidentifiable remains in net catches. This is something we also see in our multinet samples, which we collected during day and night […]

As part of the Helmholtz Earth system observation program MOSES, researchers from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel departed on the third expedition to investigate oceanic eddies between Cape Verde and Mauritania. The second week of M182 marked the start of the eddy hunting phase. After identifying the eddy’s size of 70 x […]

As part of the Helmholtz Earth system observation program MOSES, researchers from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel departed on the third expedition to investigate oceanic eddies between Cape Verde and Mauritania. The second week of M182 marks the start of the eddy hunting phase. “Eddies are circular currents that can either upwell […]