The Oceanic Research Ship ‘Hespérides’ calls at Punta Arenas.

After two days transiting through the Austral Channels in the Patagonia, the oceanic research ship ‘Hespérides’ arrived at the Chilean port of Punta Arenas. The ship had been engaged in a series of scientific projects carried out in waters of the Antarctic continent since January 3. This is the second time in this year’s Campaign that the Spanish Navy's oceanographic ship calls at this port after her first visit last December before starting the logistic movements for the opening of the Spanish Antarctic Bases.

This port call will be used to conduct, on the one hand, replenishment and maintenance tasks after spending almost forty days in Antarctic Ocean carrying out a combined scientific campaign of four main projects directed by several national and foreign Universities (University of Barcelona, University of Granada and University of Lisbon) as well as by other scientific institutions such as the National Museum of National Sciences and the Hydrographic Institute of the Navy. During this period, the ship also complemented her purely scientific tasks with those related to the logistic support of the Spanish Antarctic Bases (BAEs) ‘Juan Carlos I’ and ‘Gabriel de Castilla’, located in the archipelago of the South Shetland Islands.

Her next mission will be a scientific project called ‘Polar Change’, a study led by the Institute of Marine Sciences, part of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC in its Spanish initials), which will take samples of the Antarctic atmosphere and frozen particles in the glacial ice throughout the two seas that bathe the Antarctic Peninsula: the Weddell Sea and the Bellingshausen Sea. At the end of this project, the ship will use the last two weeks of March to undertake further logistic activities to close down both Spanish Antarctic Bases, thus wrapping up the 36th Spanish Antarctic Campaign.

The ‘Hespérides’ is integrated into the Maritime Action Force (FAM), a Fleet section responsible to ensure permanent cooperation with the different government agencies with responsibilities in the maritime domain, guaranteeing the Spanish Navy’s contribution to the State Action at Sea. This ship collaborates closely in the scientific management of the campaigns organized by the Ministry of Science and Innovation, contributing to the State's action through the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).