October 2013 to October 2014
The most fascinating trip of this season was spending a month in the middle of winter 2014 in NW Bay
Campbell island as support vessel to a NIWA Souther Right whale research program, this population had not been studied for 25 years, we managed to obtain lots of identification photographs combined with 24 biopsy samples greatly adding to the knowledge base (and hopefully protection) of these amazing creatures. As in previous years our other trips focused on birds, seals, penguins and island management, we also did a trip for GNS Science making exact GPS observations to measure plate tectonics and collect a few more rocks for their collection, this of course is all carried out by and interesting cast of characters at this stage a lot of them have been traveling onboard Tiama on trips to the Sub Antarctic for 10 years or more and keep coming back to join us on trips that remain challenging due to the operating area, the Southern Ocean is and will always remain a beautiful and at the same time worrisome place.
Email received may 2014: Many thanks Henk, for your hard work and enthusiasm to make our Sub Antarctic trip such a success – I really appreciate that, as I could not have justified a stand-alone trip for myself, or coped with the logistics that harmonised so effortlessly with the Adams Island and Campbell Island albatross teams. It really was a last chance for me to re-collect some vital rocks from vital places. I must say Henk that you run really faultless operation – it made the hard travel very easy in the circumstances. And congratulations on that red wine – equally impressive – with the good food. Chris Adams GNS Science
