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Research Voyages

Voyage to the Gulf of Carpentaria

[Introduction] [The Voyage] [The Voyagers] [The Vessel]
[Ship to Shore] [Web Links]

THE VESSEL

The Marine National Facility RV Southern Surveyor is a national facility chartered by marine scientists to explore and study Australia's oceans. It is owned and managed by CSIRO, and its operations are funded by the Australian Government to enable oceanographic, geo-scientific, fishery and ecosystem research.

Southern Surveyor voyages in the past year or so have investigated:

• submarine volcanic and hydrothermal activity in the New Hebrides;
• the geology of the Kenn Plateau off north-east Australia;
• sediment movements in the southern Gulf of Carpentaria;
• blue grenadier spawning areas and giant green crab habitat off western Tasmania;
• tuna and billfish ecosystems at three fishing grounds off eastern Australia; and
• the geology and tectonic evolution of the Mellish Rise off north-eastern Australia.

• links between oceanography and blue whale aggregations;
• seasonal changes in productivity and marine communities; and
• ocean eddies and their effect on the recruitment of young fish to fisheries.

Updated: 29/03/07