Sea-born: the mesocosms at take-off
Today the British research vessel RRS James Cook deployed our 9 mesocosms in Gando Bay at the northeast coast of Gran Canary. Everything went smoothly and our KOSMOS babies look like a cheerful bunch happy to be back in their ocean playground.
Over the past four weeks the mesocosms were assembled by our core team Jan, Felix, Michael, Pete, and Sidney. Meanwhile Andrea and Jana unpacked all our scientific equipment and set up the labs at PLOCAN. This was preceded by months of preparations back in Kiel. At the last minute the whole campaign seemed to be at risk though, as the permission to work in Gando Bay was kept on hold by the personities. Thanks to the excellent contacts and hard work of our colleagues at PLOCAN the permission was granted in the morning that James Cook left Las Palmas harbour with our mesocosms on board. What a relief that was!
While the mesocosms were deployed in Gando Bay, many of the participants arrived at nearby Las Palmas airport, with a front row view of the mesocosm playground. Just a couple of more days, and the KOSMOS circus will be at full strength.
There is still a long list of preparations in the coming days before the experiment on artificial upwelling can start. Stay tuned.