March 26, 2007 — The Danish navy ship Vaedderen brought the Galathea 3 Danish research expedition to Frederiksted Monday morning, timing this leg of its eight-month, 39,000-mile globe-circling adventure to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the territory’s transfer from Denmark to the U.S.
The expedition is conducting biological and oceanographic research in waters throughout the globe. Subjects of the expedition’s scientific research include global warming, patterns of pollution, the ocean’s role in absorbing and releasing greenhouse gases and the mating habits of eels.
"We know they come to the Sargasso Sea to breed, but where to find them actually breeding is still a mystery," said Bente Lomstein, the scientist in charge of research for this leg of the journey.
Eels all over the Atlantic, including in Danish and other European waters, are known to migrate to the Sargasso Sea, the relatively still area in the North Atlantic encircled by the trade winds and ocean currents, Lomstein explained. But how they breed is still unknown.
"No one has ever seen a pregnant eel," Lomstein said.
Most people by now have heard about the problem of high levels of mercury in certain fish. The Galathea 3 collects sea life and water samples at varying depths, in different parts of the world, to try to find out exactly what the sources are and how they reach dangerous levels. The mercury becomes more concentrated as it moves up the food chain, so that top predator fish have much higher concentrations than the surrounding water.
Many of the scientists are working on the role the ocean plays in absorbing carbon dioxide from the air. Carbon dioxide, or CO2, is the greenhouse gas produced by burning oil and coal — and by the breathing of animals and the decay of organic matter. It is the main culprit in global warming.
"The ocean has 50 times the CO2 as the atmosphere," said Katherine Richardson, a scientist on the expedition. "And the ocean has been taking up about half the extra carbon we have been putting into the atmosphere. So you could say the ocean has buffered us."
But as the ocean reaches its capacity, it may buffer the territory less. Also, as the level of CO2 increases, the water becomes more and more acidic. As the acidity increases, coral and some other sea creatures that capture both carbon and calcium begin to dissolve.
"If current trends continue, by 2065 there will be no region of ocean at all in the world where conditions are right for coral," Richardson said. Coral takes carbon out of the water, so aside from the many other problems with the loss of coral, it lessens the ability of the ocean to help absorb carbon. So the water would become yet more acidic, setting in place the elements for a worsening spiral.
To investigate all these matters and more, the ship has an arsenal of ocean-sampling equipment. They have a golf cart-sized metal sled with a two-foot wide drill head to pull up samples of sediment on the sea bed. Another rig lowers a rack of scuba tank-sized sample tubes that each let in water at a different depth, testing the dissolved carbon and other minerals across thousands of feet in different strata of the briny abyss.
Satellite uplinks allow scientists around the world to participate directly and in real time. Research data is streamed directly into Copenhagen University classrooms. They stream in live satellite imagery and correlate it with their findings on the spot.
The ship has a complement of 100. There are 50 Danish navy crew running the ship and 50 scientists, journalists and photographers. The Vaedderen is a research vessel, but it is also a Danish military vessel. The pristine, smooth gray-painted ship of steel does have weaponry, including a rapid-fire cannon on deck.
Of the 50 civilians onboard, 42 got off the ship in Frederiksted, and 42 joined or rejoined the voyage, climbing aboard from the Frederiksted pier. Some who came on had been on previous legs of the journey and some had never before set foot either on the ship or in the Virgin Islands.
The name Galathea comes from ancient Greece. Galathea was one of the 50 daughters of the sea god Nereus, known as Nereids. The name means "she who is milk-white," bringing to mind a few of the travelers arriving in the tropics fresh from a late Danish winter to join the expedition.
The first Galathea expedition set out in 1845 and circumnavigated the globe, taking care of Danish colonial and trade issues. Galathea 2 set out in 1950 as a purely scientific venture. On July 22, 1951, that expedition brought up a stone from more than 10,000 meters — more than 6 miles deep, in the Philippines Trench. The stone had two small white anemones on it, the deepest living things ever found up to that time.
Find out more about the Galathea 3 online by clicking here.
Back Talk Share your reaction to this news with other Source readers. Please include headline, your name and city and state/country or island where you reside.
