Sir David Attenborough ship visits Plymouth
A ship named after legendary broadcaster and writer Sir David Attenborough has stopped in Plymouth to take on supplies before heading to Antarctica.
The Royal Navy said RRS Sir David Attenborough, which was almost named Boaty McBoatface after a public vote, described it as one of the “most advanced polar research ships in the world”.
The vessel visited His Majesty’s Naval Base (HMNB) Devonport on Wednesday and is due to depart to Antarctica for seven months on Friday.
Captain Will Whatley said they were in Plymouth to load aviation fuel to support its research stations in Antarctica.
Captain Will Whatley said the vessel would be visiting new areas [BBC]
He said the ship was transforming how research was conducted in the polar regions, providing scientists with a state-of-the-art platform to look at oceans, the seabed, ice shelves and the atmosphere.
“There are quite a few different science projects this season which are long-term monitoring, and there are some new areas where we haven’t been before,” Capt Whatley said.
He said the ship had a huge amount of technology in-built to handle an expected wide range of sea conditions.
“We have a system called dynamic positioning where we can use a computer basically to drag the ship and hold station and keep its position down to a few centimetres in most weathers and even in rough weather.
“It might move up to a metre but that’s fine. It means we can keep delivering science even in the middle of a Southern Ocean storm.”
Capt Whatley said the ship had 30 crew members and 60 scientists on board.
Dr Rhiannon Jones is one of the scientists on board the ship [BBC]
Marine chemist for the British Antarctic Survey, Dr Rhiannon Jones, said the RRS Sir David Attenborough was responsible for resupplying several Antarctic research bases.
She said: “The containers contain all of the supplies, the food, all the medicine and all of that stuff we need for those people who are living down there summer and winter and to keep them safe.
“It’s a huge operation so we need all of the kit we want for the next seven months ready to go.”
Professor Geraint Tarling is a regular visitor to Antarctica [BBC]
Marine ecologist for the British Antarctic Survey Professor Geraint Tarling said he has been doing Antarctic science for 22 years and the fascination had “never stopped”.
Prof Tarling said there were five research bases they needed to attend in the Antarctic where they offload supplies stored on the ship, make sure they are doing well and swap personnel.
“Then it’s going to do some science cruises,” he said.
“They are going to go and try to study a number of things.
“We are going to be looking at how ocean currents are influencing how the world’s circulations and the rest of the world is working.”
Professor Geraint Tarling the Antarctic as an ‘amazing environment’ full of life [BBC]
He described the Antarctic as an “amazing environment” adding there was “life everywhere”.
He said: “The last went last year and we were surrounded by whales for days on end.
“We know it’s a really sensitive environment, an environment which is changing really rapidly and that’s why we need to go there and take critical measurements to understand what’s happening now and the predictions of what’s going to happen in the future.”
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