At sea and in the field

A few highlights of the fleet renewal in 2023 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.

RV ANNA WEBER-VAN BOSSE

In March 2023, the first model tests of the RV Anna Weber-van Bosse took place at MARIN. An exciting moment: for the first time, all brainwork, design and imagination from years of preparation come to life in a tangible hull shape in the test basin.

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On 10 October 2023, in preparation for the start of the construction of the RV Anna Weber-van Bosse, the first steel plate was cut in the presence of the site team. Another milestone for the new Dutch research fleet!

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On 11 October 2023, the festive start of construction of the RV Anna Weber-van Bosse took place at the Spanish shipyard Astilleros Armon in Vigo. The traditional coin 'for good luck' was welded onto the first steel keel plates by captain Henk Oenema of the RV Pelagia and Gert-Jan Reichart, head of the scientific department Ocean Systems.

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RV WIM WOLFF

In January 2023, the hull of the RV Wim Wolff was launched for transport from Dijkstra Metaalbewerking to Thecla Bodewes Shipyards in Harlingen for the finishing phase.

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On 26 September 2023, the RV Wim Wolff was successfully launched at Thecla Bodewes Shipyards in Harlingen. That same day the vessel was towed to Kampen for the finishing works.

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On Thursday 9 November, the RV Navicula returned to Texel from her last planned cruise for the National Research Fleet. Crew and researchers look back on their 43 years of experiences with 'the little ship'.   

RV ADRIAEN COENEN

Skipper Wim Jan Boon has sailed a full season on the RV Adriaen Coenen. And to great satisfaction.

The RV Adriaen Coenen is used for all kinds of support activities for the scientists: to quickly transport people and equipment to various locations in the Wadden Sea.

Read more about RV Adriaen Coenen in action.

RESEARCH EQUIPMENT

On 17 May 2023, three new modular gliders, part of the new research infrastructure, were presented at NIOZ. The gliders are all named after elegant and beautiful fish species; Mola, Manta and Marlin.

On 14 June 2023, glider Mola was successfully recovered during the NoSE expedition to the Norwegian Trench. Mola was piloted from RV Pelagia for 6 days before it was recovered smoothly.

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The engineering and production of the AUV, an autonomous underwater vessel, are ongoing by Teledyne Gavia in Iceland. The Sea Acceptance Trials are planned by the end of September 2024.

In 2023 the ROV Project Team has been working on specifying the demands of the Netherlands marine research community and fine-tuning the requirements for the deep work class ROV, a remotely operated vehicle.

PELAGIA 2023

Location 1: 04-01 until 18-01 Port Louis – Cape Town (Lennart de Nooijer, NIOZ, AQUA) Blog: Is the ocean getting noisier? Location 2: 11-02 until 04-03 Cape Town – Mindelo (Matthew Humphreys, NIOZ, BEYΩND) Blog: What drives carbonate minerals to dissolve in the ocean?

Location 3: 07-03 until 27-03 Mindelo – Malaga (Jan-Berend Stuut, NIOZ, Dust2023) Blog: Saharan-dust deposition and its effects on the marine environment

Location 4: 31-03 until 12-04 Malaga – Malaga (Furu Mienis, NIOZ, OASIS2023) Blog: Discovery of a new oasis in the deep! Location 5: 26-05 until 14-06 Texel – Texel (Furu Mienis, NIOZ, NoSE-North Sea Atlantic Exchange) Blog: How big is the role of the North Sea in the uptake of carbon? Location 6: 16-06 until 27-06 Texel – Texel (Kees Camphuysen, NIOZ, ACTNOW/MORMS) Blog: Collecting data on different elements of the food web: from phytoplankton to marine mammal

Location 7: 01-07 until 18-07 Texel – Kiel (Caroline Slomp, Utrecht University, Bothnian Marix) Location 8: 29-07 until 14-08 Reykjavik – Ponta Delgada (Gerhard Herndl, University of Vienna, DEPOCA) Location 9: 17-08 until 02-09 Ponta Delgada – Terceira (Susanne Wilken, University of Amsterdam, The functional role of mixotrophs in our future oceans) Location 10: 05-09 until 25-09 Terceira – Texel (Melanie Diaz, NIOZ, PLUMEFLOC)

Location 11: 30-09 until 12-10 Texel – Texel (Joop Coolen, Wageningen University, ReViFES2023) Location 12: 15-10 until 01-11 Texel – Texel (Helge Niemann, NIOZ, Methane emission in the North Sea II) Blog: Methane emission in the North Sea Location 13: 24-11 until 20-12 Vigo – Nassau (Helge Niemann, NIOZ, Ocean nanoplastics 2) Blog: Ocean nano-plastics Location 14: 24-12 until 30-12 Nassau – Willemstad (Rogier Schouten, MARIN, Propeller radiated noise testing)

NAVICULA 2023

Location 1: Waddenmozaïek, Subtidal benthos sampling (NIOZ), 3 cruises Blog: Marine biodiversity in the Ems Dollart area Location 2: Marix 2022, Methane and ammonium removal in coastal systems (UU), 2 cruises

Location 3: Monitoring Delta + project SMILE (NIOZ/UU) + project GAZoop (NIOZ), 1 cruise Location 4: ReFives (NIOZ/WUR), 1 cruise

Location 5: Project SIBES, Synoptic Intertidal Benthic Survey (NIOZ), 5 cruises Location 6: WATLAS/Shorebirds (NIOZ), 4 cruises Location 7: MaMa course (NIOZ), 1 week

Location 8: Reef deployment Voordelta (ARK Waardenburg Ecology) (Neeltje Jans), 1 cruise Location 9: TRAILS23 (NIOZ), 1 cruise

OTHER BLOGS 2023

Location A: Ecological research in the Wadden Sea 2023 (various researchers) Visit blog (in Dutch) >

Location B: Deepsea life in the cracks of the crust, Sublife expedition/Schmidt Ocean Institute (Sabine Gollner) Visit blog >

Location C: Red Knot Alaska Expedition 2023 (Jan van Gils) Visit blog >

Location D: Mediterranean sediment-trap part of unique time series of Saharan dust collection (Jan Berend Stuut) Visit blog >

Location E: EASI-2 to East Antarctica on RV Polarstern (Rob Middag/Florine Kooij) Visit blog >