CRUISES

The Antarctica Expedition focused on the South Shetland Trench (SST). It is part of the Inkfish Open Ocean Program and took place on the research vessel Dagon. The team set onboard the expedition on 5th December 2024 from Punta Arenas (Chile) and finished by 5th February 2025. 

The aim of this expedition was to map as much of the South Shetland Trench as we could in the time given with enduring weather conditions. The South Shetland Trench is a poorly researched area and the data we collected will help to give context on biodiversity, geological features and water physical properties such as depth, temperature and salinity from the surface of the ocean to its deepest trenches.  

Among the sampling methods used during this expedition was scientific landers that free-fall to the seafloor carrying multiple cameras to acquire high-definition video footage of marine species and environmental sensors that measure physical properties across the water column. We employed a hull mounted sonar on the Dragon vessel to map the underwater landscape while the Bakunawa submersible was used to observe the seafloor biodiversity and geodiversity. 

The combined data collected during this expedition will allow the scientific team to explore large scale patters of species biodiversity and abundance, genetic links, habitat characteristics, complex geological morphology and oceanographic traits of the region.

Summary  

64 days at sea  

52,766 km2 of seafloor mapped (11.4% new) 

63 landers deployed with 840 hours of video footage 

175,052 meters of data collected on depth, temperature and salinity  

6 submersible dives with 24 hours of video footage 

202 eDNA samples  

217 Identified species

Expedition Team  

Chief Scientists - Prof. Alan Jamieson and Ass. Prof. Heather Stewart 

Expedition Scientists - Dr Todd Bond, Dr Jessica Kolbusz, Dr Devin Harrison, Dr Georgia Nester, Ebony Thorpe, Jurgen Valckanaere, Jennifer Wainwright and Dylan White-Kiely.