Gaff schooner "Amazon" under sail

The 1st voyage on the schooner "Amazon" has ended. The expedition continues a series of voyages on sailing ships to remote areas of the World Ocean in order to study the stocks, biodiversity and evolution of oceanic plankton. In the current circumstances, sailing vessels allow exploring areas of the ocean where large Russian scientific vessels are unlikely to reach in the foreseeable future. For example, the previous expedition on the yacht "Basileus" took place in the tropical zone of the Indian Ocean. This time the work was carried out in the equatorial and southern parts of the tropical region of the Atlantic Ocean along the route Mindelo (Cape Verde) - Itajai (Brazil).

Whereas last time the method of collecting deep-sea plankton from a small ocean yacht with a displacement of less than 50 tons was worked out and successfully applied, this time we took samples from a much larger two-masted vessel with a displacement of more than 150 tons, which is comparable to such sailboats as the real "Santa -Maria" of Columbus and the fictional "Duncan" from the novel "Captain Grant's Children". The dimensions of the vessel made their own adjustments to the methodology of work, in some ways the sample turned out to be simpler, in some ways more difficult.

The main methodological result of the expedition is that it is possible to collect deep-sea plankton from sailing vessels of a wide size range. And consequently, it is possible to study plankton even under the current conditions in almost any area of the World Ocean - if there is a desire of the sailing ship team, a suitable route and the initiative of oceanologists. 34 samples of plankton have been obtained, the processing of which will make it possible to estimate its reserves (including in the deep-water zone), replenish data on the biodiversity of ocean fauna, study the phylogeny of individual taxa, and study the patterns of formation of biogeographic boundaries in the water column at different depths.

Like last time (November-December 2020, the peak of coronavirus restrictions), the logistics of the expedition were not easy, including in connection with the delivery of deck equipment for fishing to the vessel.

More details about the expedition can be found on the website of the Laboratory of Plankton Communities Structure and Dynamics  plankty.org. And we begin to prepare for the next expedition.

Deep-sea stations (13 stations, 34 samples) of the 1st voyage of the Amazon schooner

"Amazon" the day before departure against the background of the tanker

There is another test!