After finishing the 48 h station, we celebrated our successful and hard work with a table tennis tournament, which was challenging because of a high swell of 4 m. As the ball was missing a fixed reference frame, the movements of the ship had to be well anticipated. The swell was a hard competitor, or whatever…

Following this exciting evening, today was used by the students to evaluate the data and prepare the presentations introducing their work at the past stations. The scientists are looking forward to see the results of the previous eleven days. Let’s take a look back to what the CTD accomplished in the last days. The CTD was 21 h in the water, while covering a total distance of around 24 km. 288 Niskin bottles were filled with 3456 L of seawater. This was sampled for more than 40 parameters, of which many are already getting analyzed onboard by both students and scientists. These 40 parameters include among others trace gas measurements, nutrients, DNA, and pigments for phytoplankton species composition analysis. These data will later help to get a better understanding of the biogeochemical processes in the Indian Ocean. During the cruise, the students got an impression of the exhausting, but fun work and life onboard a research vessel. Tomorrow, the last exciting CTD will go into the water, after which we are finally going to Mauritius.

by Helmke Hepach & Matthias Krüger

During the last 48 hrs, 288 Niskin bottles were filled with 3456 L of sea water. Photo: Folkard Wittrock