Tristan : Research Scientists visit Tristan from Sweden
Submitted by Tristan Times (Sarah Glass) 16.02.2010 (Article Archived on 16.03.2010)
On the 1st February the 21m long ketch yacht Ocean Tramp arrived from the Falkland Islands with a team of Scientists to carry out scientific work at Nightingale Island.
Research Scientists visit Tristan from Sweden
On the 1st February the 21m long ketch yacht Ocean Tramp arrived from the Falkland Islands with a team of Scientists to carry out scientific work at Nightingale Island.
The team led by Professor Svante Bjorck from the GeoBiosphere Science Centre, Lund University, had been to Tristan with a team before in 2003. At that time he manually cored on the 1st and 2nd pond with a so-called Russian peat sampler and wanted to continue his work.
This time it is his intention to core all four ponds on Nightingale, using a chain hoist driven by man power. He will also carry out resistivity measurements on the ponds to get an idea how deep they are. These completely harmless measurements will have no influence at all on the vegetation or fauna.
They will also take water samples in the ponds and sample some endemic plants for DNA analyses.
Svante is accompanied by his brother Martin who is a Doctor and four other scientists, who have stated that they will be extremely cautious with the wild life on the island, and have a deep respect of the uniqueness of the island and of course will obey any set up rules.
The Scientist accompanied by two Tristanian guides Warren Glass and Donny Green, were landed on Nightingale on the 4th February, after spending a night at anchor onboard the Ocean Tramp at Inaccessible. Tristanian Norman Glass, who has a yacht master’s offshore ticket, spent time onboard, with Charlie Porter the captain of the Ocean Tramp around the islands of Nightingale, Inaccessible and Tristan to advise on anchorages, while the team work on Nightingale for 12 days. They returned to Tristan before departing for the Falklands on the 15th February.
Sarah Glass
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