MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falkor (Too) sets sail after red tape delays

The scientists on board will conduct marine geology and physical oceanography research

Following days of delays caused by red-tape issues, the Falkor (Too) set sail from the port of Buenos Aires for another underwater joint streaming mission by the Schmidt Ocean Institute and Argentina's National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (Conicet) is already underway.

The departure was delayed for “administrative” reasons. Now the scientific team plans to explore the underwater canyons of the Argentine continental slope in two different systems: 500 km from Viedma and 450 km from Rawson, in a little-known area that is key to understanding how the deep ocean and the shelf are connected.

According to the Data Portuaria website, the ship was stranded in the Port of Buenos Aires awaiting an agreement requiring the signature of Rear Admiral Hernán Jorge Montero. “The delay caused frustration among the 30 researchers on board and was interpreted by some as a sign of disdain for the work of the academic community,” the specialized website noted.

Once that conflict was resolved, the ship set sail under the direction of oceanographer Silvia Inés Romero. The team created an Instagram account, Ecos de 2 cañones, to share everything related to the new mission. Among other things, it will provide information on when live broadcasts from the bottom of the sea will be transmitted, although no specific dates have been set, because this depends, among other things, on sea conditions.

”One of the main reasons why Schmidt Ocean is making the ship available is to promote science. We have been meeting with them for over a year, where they explain what we have to do with the media () We think we have to put on a show,“ the specialist said.

”We are only going to go down to a depth of 1,000 meters. We will see a different ecosystem (from the one in Mar del Plata), we will take water samples, and the organisms we will see will be smaller,“ explained Romero, 58, a veteran of over a dozen campaigns.

”This one is different because we have the 'rob,' which has spectacular cameras and will allow us to see the bottom to take marine geology samples,“ she noted.

”The Malvinas (Falklands) Current has an influence along the entire slope. We know this from numerical models and observations, but now we have the opportunity to investigate, in situ, how it interacts with the submarine canyons of the continental margin. However, these two canyons, unlike the one in Mar del Plata, where the previous expedition took place, are not blind but rather affect the upper margin, just where the shelf ends and the slope begins. Our hypothesis is that they have a decisive impact by facilitating the exchange of waters from the Malvinas Current,“ Romero also explained.

”We are going to conduct marine geology and physical oceanography research to find out whether the submarine canyons are indeed entry routes for nutrient-rich water into shallower areas, to understand exactly how water enters and exits the shelf, and to understand how this impacts the organisms at the base of the food chain, phytoplankton and zooplankton,” she added.