Ocean Change Expedition: Cast off for Arved Fuchs and the "Dagmar Aaen"
Pascal Schürmann
· 19.06.2024
Arved Fuchs and his sailing ship "Dagmar Aaen" set off yesterday from Kiel on a new adventure for science. For the ninth year in a row, the professional adventurer is continuing his Ocean Change climate expedition series. The destination of this year's leg is the European Arctic Ocean and Bear Island between the North Cape and Spitsbergen in the Barents Sea.
The "Dagmar Aaen" will once again be used to transmit information. Meteorological and oceanographic data collected en route, such as salinity, CO2 saturation and surface water temperature, can be tracked in real time and around the clock. There are also plans to establish contact at sea with the German research vessels "Merian", "Heincke" and "Polarstern".
Representatives of partners and supporters of the expedition, including Prof. Dr Katja Matthes, Director of the Geomar Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, and Dr Ulrike Heine from the German Ocean Decade Committee (ODK) of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, attended the farewell ceremony.
On its way north, the "Dagmar Aaen" will once again be used to transmit information. Meteorological and oceanographic data collected en route, such as salinity, CO2 saturation and surface water temperature, can be tracked in real time and around the clock. There are also plans to establish contact at sea with the German research vessels "Merian", "Heincke" and "Polarstern".
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With a crew of ten on board, the new leg of the Ocean Change expedition will also be an exciting journey into the world of ocean research. Arved Fuchs and his team have been working intensively on the changes in the oceans and their effects on the climate and coastal landscapes since 2015.
The public should be sensitised to the need to protect the global climate
The aim of the citizen science project is to sensitise the public to the need to protect the oceans and the global climate, while at the same time providing scientific institutes on board the "Dagmar Aaen" with important data. In collaboration with the Geomar Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and the Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde, the collected data will be transmitted live to the beluga.geomar.de platform. In addition, data is collected by satellite for the German Weather Service and measuring buoys, known as drifters, are deployed.
Interested parties can also follow the expedition live: Videos of life on board and other exciting content will be made available in the logbook blog, on Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok and in a podcast. The current position of the "Dagmar Aaen" can be found here.
Committed to environmental and marine protection for over 40 years
Arved Fuchs, ambassador of the German committee of the current UN Ocean Decade, has dedicated his life to the protection of the polar regions and the oceans for over 40 years. He and his international crew have already travelled more than 40,000 nautical miles around the Atlantic with the ice-going shark cutter "Dagmar Aaen" as part of the Ocean Change expedition series.
"I have also travelled to the Norwegian Sea several times - just not in the name of science. I'm particularly looking forward to Bear Island, which is often overlooked: I last travelled there in 1991 and I'm very excited to see what impression it makes today - a good 30 years later," says Fuchs about this year's trip to the Arctic regions.
The accompanying physical oceanographer Dr Johannes Karstensen from Geomar in Kiel adds: "This year's leg is already the second Fuchs expedition that will provide important data on the effects of the overheated Atlantic on the marine environment. The high-tech probes on board will enable us scientists to detect coastal and very localised changes. Equally, it will be very exciting to look at the route as a whole at the end of the expedition and identify connections along the route. "
The expedition is expected back in Flensburg, the home port of the "Dagmar Aaen", in September.
