May 16, 2023
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On Tuesday, January 31, an Italian icebreaker ventured somewhere no vessel had gone before in a welcoming piece of news towards better polar research. Laura Bassi is an Antarctic research ship that entered the Ross Area in the Bay Of Whales at 78° 44.280 S coordinates.
This is the farthest in the south a ship has travelled in Antarctica.
This venture into the south happened because of lesser ice in the sea, as Antarctic icebergs are melting faster than they can be created by nature.
The captain of Laura Bassi, Franco Sedmak, said they are happy with the record but sad that Antarctica and the world are drastically changing. Earlier in 2017, he encountered impenetrable ice while on a different vessel.
The researchers are studying the samples collected at a depth of 216 metres. They studied the fish and other marine creatures in the water, revealing that the extremely cold area had juvenile fish species. Some of them are rare in the Ross Sea. They also found larva of fish and vast quantities of algae.
References: Channel New Asia, The Print
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