News Archive

15 May 2010

After a week at sea, our boutique team of 8 scientists have deployed 4 drifters in the Leeuwin Current and completed three onshore- offshore transects from Barrow Island and NW Cape, through mazes of oil and gas platforms.

We're trying to map the forming Leeuwin Current as it consolidates just north of NW Cape - water masses from Indonesia  seem to have become very saline off the N coast of WA as they passed on their way south, and these flow, warm and salty, overtop of fresher, cooler water from the NW (Gyral Current?).  The drifters have been named after our international members, Vincent (Toulouse), Judith (Kiel, Germany), Christin (Sweden) and Megan (Canada). So far Drifter Vincent is winning the race to be the first to cross the 22 S line. The three others have been delayed in the last day by 30-40 knot winds from the SE which have now finally forced the ship to suspend all sampling operations. There is still hope that the Leeuwin Current will assert its authority and send the drifters hurtling south. We are now steaming west to our 1000 m station off NW Cape, in the hopes that we can actually complete a CTD cast there.  Exciting projects aboard include a first 3-D survey of ocean acidity, and a first genetic characterization of the microbes of the coastal NW. Star performers include John Akl (CSIRO) who has managed to be awake so far at every single CTD station, and Lynnath Beckley (Murdoch), who has bounded up for every production station to do quality control on the bongo nets. Thankfully both are now at rest as we plough offshore in search of smoother swell.

Anya Waite, Chief Scientist, Voyage SS2010_04 RV Southern Surveyor

Media references

Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs) (+61 8) 6488 5563 / (+61 4) 32 637 716

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