Aotearoa New Zealand’s RV Tangaroa Returns From the Ross Sea After the Successful “ACTUATE” Voyage.
RV Tangaroa has just returned from the 40-day “ACTUATE” voyage - its 16th to Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. This is a major event in Aotearoa New Zealand’s science calendar as the ship is the nation’s largest single piece of research infrastructure and these voyages are among the most complex it undertakes. ACTUATE (AntarCTic soUthern oceAn scienTific rEsearch) was supported by funding from the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (MBIE), the Antarctic Science Platform (ASP), NIWA Strategic Science Investment Funds, University of Auckland, University of Otago, Victoria University Wellington, and overseas funding agencies (India’s CMLRE - Centre for Marine Living Resources & Ecology; U.K. NERC). The science objectives for the 2025 RV Tangaroa Voyage included hydrography, benthic ecology, fish eDNA, oxygen budgets and zooplankton population estimation.
After making some voyage route changes in response to the weather and sea ice conditions, the science sampling program proceeded essentially as planned. The voyage sampled 253 stations, with more than 1100 water sample bottles, 72 DTIS camera deployments, 15 Hydrographic/biophysical mooring and 220 km ocean Glider mission. Notably, the voyage enabled Tangaroa’s farthest south science at 77 South in order to recover the RISIPE ice shelf cavity moorings deployed last year by a NZ team aboard Italy's Laura Bassi. In addition, the sea ice conditions meant we were able to map new benthic ecology distributions at Franklin Island, Ross Island and Coulman Island. There is growing interest in robotic monitoring and, along with the ocean glider mission, ACTUATE deployed 12 Argo profiling floats in a work package led by co-voyage lead Dr Denise Fernandez. Two of the floats were BGC-Argo units, funded by the ASP, with enhanced sampling capability. The voyage is documented at https://niwa.co.nz/vessels/voyages/ross-sea-voyage-2025.
Contact craig.stevens@niwa.co.nz.
