CSHOR’s Veronica Tamsitt joins the CAPSTAN voyage aboard the RV Investigator

 

One of CSHOR’s postdoctoral fellows, Veronica Tamsitt, sailed from Hobart to Fremantle as a trainer on an exciting 10-day educational voyage aboard the RV Investigator. Veronica joined six other researchers from a diverse group whose expertise span plankton biology to sediments and geophysics, to train a group of 20 honours, masters and PhD students at sea.

The Collaborative Australian Postgraduate Sea Training Alliance Network (CAPSTAN) program provides an opportunity for students in marine sciences from around Australia to gain experience at sea on Australia’s state-of-the-art research vessel, the RV Investigator. The program aims to transform marine science education through the development of a national approach to teaching and learning in the marine realm. CAPSTAN is a first of its kind and it provides an exciting interdisciplinary environment for learning and for science.

The voyage was part of a transit between Hobart and Fremantle. It visited an undersea canyon in the Bonney Coast off the coast of Victoria, which is known to be a hotspot for Blue Whales and other large marine mammals. The science party investigated the geology, biology and oceanography of a relatively unexplored region.

Veronica supervised the oceanography component of the voyage, collecting profiles of water temperature and salinity and water samples of oxygen and nutrients.