Marion Island Relief Voyage on the SA Agulhas II Voyage 007, April 2013

The Marion Island Relief Voyage was conducted on the SA Agulhas II Voyage 007, 10 April to 16 May 2013. The 2013 Marion Relief Voyage 007 on board South Africa’s new polar research and supply vessel, the SA Agulhas II, afforded yet another opportunity to conduct multi-institutional (DEA, DAFF, UCT, SAEON, Rhodes University) and multi-disciplinary ship-based oceanographic research that focused on links and interactions between air and sea, ocean physics, biogeochemistry, plankton and benthic communities and island-based top predators. The overall aim is to establish an oceanographic observation and monitoring system directed by South African research institutions in support of South Africa’s needs – and where possible, the global requirements of the Southern Ocean Observation System (SOOS), CCAMLR, ACAP, etc., by documenting ship-board observations in the oceanic environment around the Prince Edward Islands in a holistic manner, from the sea floor, through water column and food-web dynamics, to air-sea interactions and their respective role in the general global thermohaline circulation realm.With the recent declaration – on 5 April 2013 – of the Prince Edward Islands (PEIs) as South Africa’s first offshore Marine Protected Area (MPA), the outcomes of this cruise will contribute toward an integrated view and a better understanding of the functioning of the combined island/marine PEI ecosystem.