D.S.I.R. charters Transglobe ship

Press, 29 December 1980, Page 6

D.S.I.R. charters Transglobe ship

New Zealand will pay $40,000 to charter the Transglobe expedition the ship Benjamin Bowring for a 10day geographical study in Antarctic waters. -

The ship, which js preparing for the voyage south to collect the British expedition at Mc'Murdb Sound, has been chartered by, the. New Zealand Department of Scientific and industrial Research at a rate of $4OOO a day.

The director of the D.S.I.R.’s Geophysics Division, Dr T. Hatherton, said that the charter offered New Zealand a unique opportun-

ity for scientific study in the Southern Ocean. Six scientists in the division and the Oceanographic Institute of the D.S.LR. and one from Victoria University will be involved in the study, which yyill include research into water mass and the boundary between the TransAn tarctic Mountains and the western Ross Sea.

The results of the' watermass "study are expected to supply information on the distribution of phytoplankton between New Zealand and the Ross Ice Shelf. For the study the ship will have to remain stationary for about

half an hour at every , degree of latitude from 40 degrees south to the Ice Shelf, which starts about 78 degrees south. The Benjamin Bowring, which is scheduled to visit Lyttelton on January 6 to collect aviation fuel, is well reinforced to'carry out this type of survey. As other similar voyages are uncommon, the D.S.LR. was keen to take advantage of this one.

When the ship returns to New Zealand, the members of the'Transglobe expedition, which is crossing the Antarctic continent, plan to hold exhibitions in this country be-, fore continuing their round-: the-world expedition.