Back home!

We are all back home! After six very productive weeks Ben and Ariadna also returned from Svalbard on August 6. Looking back, the summer field season of 2013 can be considered very successful. 

What did we accomplish:

• Ariadna got her first field experience with working in the Arctic region: sampling on the fjord, getting acquainted with Arctic (benthic) species, running exposure studies in the lab, dissecting shell fish, improvising, collecting samples for bioindicator studies, organising transport to and from Ny-Ålesund, and experiencing the beauty of the Arctic.
• Ben also got his first experiences working in the Arctic, with working hard and long days (and nights) to assist Ariadna (see above), improvising and being flexible (to finally retrieve the research equipment he needed for his own tests), obtaining first results of ballast water testing in the Arctic, and enjoying the Arctic community and nature to the max.
• Martine was happy to experience her second summer at Ny-Ålesund, coordinating this year’s field season, collecting new sediment samples for targeted contaminant analysis (this time also focusing on run off of cont
  aminants from the old mine), arranging pictures of special sites of the Kongsfjorden together with Geir Gabrielsen and Maarten Loonen (a small project that will be presented at a later stage), and taking every opportunity to enjoy the Arctic community and nature.
• Bas and Ruben were in awe during their first visit to Ny-Ålesund, continuously following Ben, Ariadna, Martine and other inhabitants of the Dutch Arctic Station with their camera and sound equipment to collect extensive film footage of doing research at Ny-Ålesund. All footage is now in process for the documentary on the importance of research for sustainable developments in the Arctic. The documentary will be used as part of a lecture of the Minor Oil & Gas in The Netherlands and will become available online.  

It’s great to be back having all these wonderful experiences in our backpack...

Photo by Ruben Kocx ©