Ross Sea Voyage 2024

Our team will spend two months at sea, witnessing sea-ice retreat firsthand.

The planned voyage track is anti-clockwise around the Ross Sea.

The RV Laura Bassi departed from the Port of Lyttelton, New Zealand, on 6 January. It entered the Ross Sea at the western side a week later, working along the Victoria Land Coast and in Terra Nova Bay.

The ship called in at the Italian Antarctic research station, Mario Zuchelli, to collect scientists who had flown in from McMurdo Station/Scott Base.

The vessel is then transiting along the front of the Ross Ice Shelf, then north and west along the continental shelf break.

Our team aims to arrive in Lyttelton on about 3 March.

You can follow the RV Laura Bassi's 39th PNRA Antarctic Campaign in real-time on ship operator OGC's web site

The New Zealand science plan has three key objectives.

Ross Sea Polynya

Polynya are sea ice production factories. They are (i) difficult places to make measurements and (ii) poorly represented in climate models – and knowledge of them is critical at a time of rapidly declining sea ice. Our goal for the voyage is to deploy state of the art sensors designed to operate and gather information over a range of spatial and temporal scales, to develop new knowledge of Antarctica’s most productive polynya – the Ross Sea Polynya.

Ross Sea region Marine Protected Area (MPA)

We will use a range of current research tools, including isotopic analysis, gene-scaping, eDNA, acoustics, gathering of key environmental measurements, and deployment of ROVs and ocean gliders, to study Ross Sea pelagic and benthic (coastal) ecosystems. This data will be used, along with existing and future research, to establish a baseline of the Ross Sea region MPA ecosystem function and coastal biodiversity to determine how vulnerable this ecosystem is to the future changes anticipated for this region.

Seabed coring

An important aspect of Platform research is to use sediment records to better understand how the Ross Sea responded to historic climatic conditions. Knowing how sea ice was distributed, and how that impacted on primary production at times when the climate was naturally warmer can inform predictions of how things will respond when such conditions return. To support this research, we aim to collect and analyse shallow cores along the front of the Ross Ice Shelf, areas that we have seldom visited, to enhance existing transfer functions.

The following organisations are providing funding, personnel or equipment for the voyage:

Antarctica New Zealand

Antarctic Science Platform

British Antarctic Survey

Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale (OGS)

MAC3 Impact Philanthropies

Monash University

National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Sciences (NIWA)

Programma Nazionale di Ricerche in Antartide (PNRA)

Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington

University of Otago | Te Whare Wānanga o Otāgo

University of Waikato | Te Whare Wananga o Waikato

- Voyage to solve the mystery of Antarctica's plummeting sea ice - Stuff

- New Zealand scientists return from Antarctica's ice with information that could shape future climate policy - Newshub

- Signs found of worryingly fast Antarctic ice melt - RNZ, Newstalk ZB, TVNZ

- United Nations sounds 'Red Alert' as world smashes every major global climate record - Newshub

- The Detail podcast: The sea ice factories of Antarctica, 23'24" - Radio New Zealand, Newsroom

- Antarctica's sea ice hit another low this year - understanding how ocean warming is driving the loss is key - The Conversation

For media inquiries, please contact d.diaz@antarcticanz.govt.nz