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 ©

Meanwhile at "the office"

Yes, as usual we have been busy again!

Instead of working outside in the fjord it seems that our daily routine is occupied with "inside work".

From dusk to dawn (or from 0:900 to 23:00) Ariadna and I are working in the Marine lab located next to the Ny-Alesund harbour.

Warm clothing, music and Zooplankton..We'll manage!
©Ariadna Szczybelski

The bioindicator project is running smoothly, this week all organisms will be weight and measured, freeze-dried and sent to Holland!

The Ballast-water project is also going as planned, tests are up and running and the results are looking good. Tests are performed inside a climate room at 2°C, which is just fine for the tested organisms (Zooplankton), but chilly for the one who has to monitor them daily! But then again, we are on the North pole, it should be chilly!

The Arctic fox, a nice suprise! 
©Brigitte Weiss 
http://www.feathersinthesky.com/about.htm

Something else that is only found in the Arctic regions and which showed up last night is the Arctic fox! Walking around the tundra and in our backyard! Our German Colleague grabbed her camera and made amazing pictures. I had the same plan but I could not find it... But it is amazing to see such wildlife so close.

The upcoming days we will be enjoying the Marine lab, doing our research and hopefully encounter some other nice wildlife. Have a great weekend!

The week of succes!

It's friday! We finished our sampling on the Teisten and Ariadna is as we speak (or as I write) busy with the dissection of her newfound organisms! Meanwhile I am entering data and writing this story about the horror and adventures of this week...

Enjoying lunch in between hours of hard labour, sorry Ari...
© Ben Frederiks

With the Teisten we moved back and forth the Kongsfjord this week, sampling at every possible point that could deliver us "the goods". And it was quite a task to get enough organisms for Ariadna, long days on the boat it were, but we managed to get a sufficient amount and Ariadna is the happiest girl in town!

The Teisten during nice weather
©Ben Frederiks

On the picture you can see Ariadna enjoying her lunch on the boat while watchting the astonishing views we encounter during our boat-trips during nice weater, it has not always been nice though...

But the days of hardship are over, weather was great yesterday and today so we could get ourselves a tan while being on the boat!

Even more good news this week: The expected cargo has finally landed in Ny-Alesund, hence the Ballast Water tests are officially starting! This going to be one of the main activities for the upcoming week, we are also going to start the process of freeze drying all the samples taken from the fjord before we sent them to the Netherlands for further research.

The next thing on this schedule is a good night of sleep...Goodnight!

-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!

Working, waiting, moving and polarbears!

Spitsbergen (or Svalbard, whatever you fancy) is not such an easy place to work as a scientist, that's at least what we have found out in the last week. Materials and shipments seems to be always in delay. And that one item you forgot to take with you on you're journey is the one you need the most...

This is regarding to my (Ben) experiments, the parcel that left the Netherlands 2 weeks ago was to be delivered on the 11th of July from the cargoship that provides the village with it's monthly supplies. Luckily the ship arrived, but my "stuff" is stuck in Tromsø, why is not clear but after a lot of phonecalls, Emails and money my parcel should be on it's way now...for real this time!

Being busy in the lab creates a messs

Despite the lack of materials the tests concerning the efficiency of Ballastwater biocides starts today, tough with another biocide and a lot of improvising, but that is the way things go in the Arctic. If all is going as planned the parcel will arrive on monday which will make things a lot easier.

But writing a sad  story in Ny-Alesund is impossible, too many good things happen! As I mentioned earlier, the supply-vessel arrived! This means that fresh fruit, meat, veggies and ofcourse toilet paper are once again abundant in the most Northern village! Dinner has always been excellent but some small things are only served when the ship has visited town, making dinner even better!

London 2, moved towards it's new location

Don't worry, we won't come back 10 kilo's heavier, that's because we work so hard! Ariadna's experiment is going as planned. One of her objectives is to gather as much organisms as possible and to sent them to Holland for further analysis, this is scheduled for next week and it will take quite some while to gather the goods. This week it is vital to keep on checking the water quality that is used for her tests.

This week London 2, one of the 4 "english style" houses was removed from it's location and put 10 metres further in the street. The building is being renovated and that is quite a task, lifting a house is not something you see daily but it does make good pictures! The placement is only for a short while, when the foundation has been renovated it will be located back again.

London 2, still at it's original location 

To finish for today, at around midnight two polar bears where spotted on a small island near the village, after a short swim they came ashore and walked towards the village to have a look around. But then the watchmen arrived and scared them off.. Those guys really deserve the name "Watchmen" since we slept trough the night and didn't hear a thing....

Waiting and livin' on the edge!

Since working on the boat is done we are now in the Marine lab mostly, this building is the absolutely perfect example of how complete a lab can be, it has several climate rooms, working areas and much more. But it is also located directly near the water which has the enormous benefit of seeing wildlife while at work! 

Ariadna's test in the climate room ©Ben Frederiks

For example, 5 days ago a huge group of belugas swam through the fjord and yesterday a walrus was spotted in the harbour! This of course does not affect the work performed by us, but it is a great feature that makes this place so special.

Besides watching the magnificent wildlife work has to be done! This week we started Ariadna’s tests, the organisms were put in the aquaria and water is changed every two days. With the starting of the tests monitoring becomes a standard part of the day to see if animals are staying vivid and alive.

My (Ben) materials are arriving on Thursday, from them on I can practice my skills in the lab too, until that time I am assisting Ariadna with the project. But I cannot wait till Thursday, will be a great to finally get started! That is, if the polar bears leave us alone…

This morning at around 7:30 we woke up because of gunshots near the house, assuming that it came from the shooting range we stayed at ease and kept on sleeping, after a few more shots we heard our German colleague Gigi shouting “Polar bear at the beach!”, immediately we jumped out of our beds, grabbed our camera’s and ran towards the door! And there it was: A large white polar bear walking along the shoreline being followed by two watchmen that shot flares at him to scare him away.  

The polar bear near the Dutch station only 500
meters away!  ©Brigitte Weiss

Although the bear did not seemed impressed by the explosions it moved away from the village leaving us exited and fully awake!

This it is just another reminder that our staying in Spitsbergen is not completely without risks, though it’s more likely to choke on the excessive breakfast, but the visit of a polar bear is not impossible…

Gathering the animals... What a job!

It have been busy days since Bas, Ruben and Martine left Spitsbergen, despite the tears and hugs the show had to go on…well fieldwork in this case. For the last few days it meant collecting organisms for Ariadna’s exposure experiment.

The animals were taken from the Kongsfjord, with the good old workboat “Teisten”. The entire area was sampled to find the perfect spot where the animals needed could be found.

An amount of 100 organisms per species had to be collected, rating to a total of 400 crawling creatures! The animals where sampled from the bottom of the Kongsfjord with help op the Van Veen Grab at depths of 20 to 60 metres! The grab is able to collect a small amount of sediment each time so it had to be lifted up and down a lot of times during the day.

Ariadna sorting out a sample on the Teisten. cold hands, cuts and
rain,but she keeps on going... © Ben Frederiks

Monday was a day with horrible weather, strong gusts and a lot of showers, a lovely day to stay inside but no…we brave few went out on the boat. The sampling went well, but there was no abundance of animals to be found, meaning that we would have to work a bit harder the upcoming days. To make the hardship complete: We almost forgot dinner! Ariadna insisted to work a bit longer to finish the preparations for the next day, still keeping the weekend dinner-schedule in mind we walked back towards the service-building with great hunger to find out that the working days-schedule is a bit earlier compared to the weekend…something never to forget! (don’t worry, we still got dinner that evening).

On Tuesday Ariadna and I were joined by Thijs and Sander, the filmcrew from the Dutch scientific television program Labyrinth. These guys where here to film the work we are conducting in Ny-Alesund, it was great to have them on-board, pitty that the weather started with a fog so dense that the captain of the boat had to slow down due to the low visibility. Later on the clouds disappeared and a beautiful scenery appeared.

Later that evening a Polarbear was spotted on Storholmen island at the other side of the fjord, in no-time the whole village was looking at the enormous animal with binoculars and telescopes. It was foraging on the islands bird nests and took a nap after dinner. Unfortunately my camera did not have the range to make a proper photo of it, but it was a big one!

True, it's not a polarbear but this iceberg with Kittiwakes is
also worth a look. © Ben Frederiks

Wednesday was a great day, started sampling early in the morning, it was a calm and sunny day, we could feel the warm sun! And with this last day of sampling the results of our hard work are as followed: enough shellfish have been gathered, The Macoma and Astarte are ready to put in test! On the contrary worms are a bit harder to find Nephtys and Pectinaria are not abundant and it is questionable if these are put in test.

All with all these were pretty good days, hopefully the materials arrive tomorrow so I (Ben) can start up my tests concerning Ballast-water management systems too. It will be another exiting week!