At sea and in the field
A few highlights of the fleet renewal in 2022 and a selection of the blogs from fieldwork and expeditions at sea. You can follow the progress of the fleet renewal by subscribing to the digital newsletter, the website and social media @ResearchFleetNL.
New Research Fleet and Equipment
RV Adriaen Coenen
On July 6, 2022, the smallest research vessel RV Adriaen Coenen was christened at Next Generation Shipyards in Lauwersoog. After this event, it sailed to NIOZ's home port on Texel to take over operations from the RV Stern.
The ship supported research on the Wadden Sea in the autumn of 2022 by quickly and sustainably transporting passengers, materials and equipment. Listen to the podcast of skipper Wim Jan Boon (in Dutch).
RV Wim Wolff
After the keel was laid at N. Dijkstra Metaalbewerking in Harlingen in November 2021, all of 2022 was spent working hard to build the aluminum hull of the RV Wim Wolff, the replacement for the current Wadden and Delta research vessel RV Navicula. The hull was launched in January 2023 and transported to Thecla Bodewes Shipyards, also in Harlingen, where it will be further completed. The ship is expected to be delivered in the summer of 2023. The crew and researchers look forward to putting the ship into service in the fall of 2023. A huge advance in capacity, research opportunities and much more sustainable technology.
RV Anna Weber-van Bosse
On December 16, 2022, the contract was signed for the construction of the new ocean-going research vessel the RV Anna Weber-van Bosse. After years of preparation, in 2023 construction has begun on an innovative, sustainable and distinctive ship, which will replace the then 35-year-old RV Pelagia in just over two years. The new ship will be prepared to run on methanol and it will have an ice class, making it possible to conduct research closer to the ice edge, which is necessary due to the rapidly melting ice caps.
The flagship of the Dutch research fleet is named after Anna Weber-van Bosse: the first Dutch female, seagoing marine biologist. Anna Weber-van Bosse was the Netherlands' first female marine researcher of international stature.
Research equipment
In addition to the new ships, a lot of work is being done on the autonomous and remotely controlled equipment purchased from NWO-GWI (Large-scale Scientific Infrastructure) funds.
By 2022, 3 gliders have been purchased for the Dutch marine research community. These remotely controlled devices provide current measurements and can get to areas that are difficult to navigate. In the fall of 2022, a number of scientists and technicians attended an operational and maintenance training course. The gliders will be used on RV Pelagia cruises in 2023.
2022 also marked the signing of the construction of an AUV, an autonomous underwater vessel which can be used flexibly for HR visualizations. It will be delivered in 2024. Finally, in 2022 tender preparations started for the procurement of an ROV, a remotely operated vehicle at full ocean depth.
NIOZ at sea and in the field: Pelagia 2022
Location 1: 21-02 until 12-03 Palma de Mallorca – Palma de Mallorca (Shaun Johnston, Scripps Institution of Oceanography) Location 2: 06-04 until 18-04 Willemstad – Willemstad (Furu Mienis, NIOZ, SEALINK) >> Read blog
Location 3: 21-04 until 01-05 Willemstad – Bermuda (Sjoerd Groeskamp, NIOZ, Mixation1) >> Read blog
Location 4: 02-06 until 22-06 Texel – Texel (Henko de Stigter, NIOZ, Methane Emission North Sea) Location 5: 25-06 until 02-07 Texel – Texel (Karline Soetaert, NIOZ, Footprint, offshore windfarm) together with RV Simon Stevin and RV Belgica Location 6: 04-07 until 15-07 Texel – Texel (Joop Coolen, WUR, ReViFes 2022)
Location 7: 28-07 until 04-08 Horta – Horta (Telmo Morato, Instituto do Mar, iMAR cruise) Location 8: 06-08 until 11-08 Terceira – Terceira (Fleur Visser, NIOZ/UvA, Deep Sea Prey II) Location 9: 12-08 until 18-08 Terceira – Terceira (Susanne Wilken, UvA, Mixotrophs)
Location 10: 19-08 until 27-08 Terceiro – Ponta Delgada (Peter Kraal, NIOZ, I-Nano) >> Read blog Location 11: 08-10 until 31-12 Port-Louis – Port Louis (Ralph Freitag and Udo Barckhausen, Bundesdienst fur Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe, INDEX 2022, Leg 1,2 and 3.)
NIOZ at sea and in the field: Navicula 2022
Location 1: Waddenmozaïek, Subtidal benthos sampling (NIOZ), 6 cruises Location 2: Marix 2022, Methane and ammonium removal in coastal systems (UU), 3 cruises
Location 3: Monitoring Delta + project SMILE (NIOZ/UU) + project GAZoop (NIOZ), 2 cruises Location 4: ReFives (NIOZ/WUR), 2 cruises
Location 5: Project SIBES, Synoptic Intertidal Benthic Survey (NIOZ), 3 cruises Location 6: TRAILS (NIOZ), 2 cruises >> Read blog
Location 7: WATLAS/Shorebirds (NIOZ), 4 cruises Location 8: Methane in MRS Delta (NIOZ), 1 cruise Location 9: MaMa course (NIOZ), 1 week
Selection of Fieldwork 2022
Location A: The WISE expedition to West Antarctic Peninsula (Swan Sow/Julia Engelmann) >> Read blog
Location B: Red Knot Alaska Expedition 2022 (Jan van Gils/Clazina Kwakernaak) >> Read blog
Location C: Tracking two harmful algal blooms species through time in Florida (Suzanne de Zwaan) >> Read blog Location D: MedDust 2022 from Italian tug Macistone (Jan Berend Stuut) >> Read blog
Location E: WATLAS | Dunlins on the island of Griend (in Dutch) (Evy Gobbens) >> Read blog Location F: Dust in South America (Jan Berend Stuut) >> Read blog
Location G: Deep Sea Mining, Pacific, RV Sonne (Sabine Gollner/Tanja Stratmann) >> Read blog More information about the impact of mining >> Ocean blogs