-9 just the way we like it

Horrible horrible weather! With hard winds and high waves we faced the freezing temperatures of -9! At least, it felt that cold...it was even showed on the weatherforecast... Nevertheless we are out on the Kongsfjord this week, from Monday till Friday we will work 'till we drop in our search for benthic organisms.
The organisms caught will be disected in the lab, freeze-dryed and shipped to the Netherlands where further

Iceberg with Ny-Alesund in the back, even during work nice
pictures can be made. ©Ben Frederiks

research will be performed on these organisms at the IMARES departments in Den Helder and Yerseke.

The workingday is not over after a long day on the ship, Ariadna and I (Ben) both have our projects that still need daily attention, this means working late and a lot less sleep than usual. The Tests on Ballastwater biocides were a bit delayed but while improvising one test is up and running..almost worth a celebration!

And on Thursday all materials will finally arrive! That means that there is one usefull week left to perform tests on Ballast water Biocides, a lot less time we've hoped for, but we'll make the best of it!

By the way, there is a new funfact...Last night a mother bear with cub was spotted near the pub "mellageret', that's very close to the Dutch station! It will probably be back this night, time to get our camera's ready!