Winter Shakedown Cruise on SA Agulhas II Voyage 003, July 2012

The Winter Shakedown Cruise was conducted on the SA Agulhas II, Voyage 003, 9 July to 6 August, 2012. The cruise started in Cape Town and went down to the GoodHope Line then up to the Prince Edward Islands, on to Port Elizabeth and then back to Cape Town. After the arrival of SA Agulhas II back to South Africa, an inaugural Southern Ocean cruise was undertaken, which included a multidisciplinary program to measure oceanographic and biological parameters that characterise the state of the Southern Ocean in the region of interest to South Africa, along with the ecosystem properties of the major gyres, frontal systems and shelf and plateau areas. Additionally, land-based research on marine mammals and seabirds was undertaken at South Africa’s Prince Edward Islands (PEIs). The aim of the cruise was to test the research vessels capability and its equipment and to increase our understanding with regard to the influences of oceanographic conditions (specifically eddies) and topography on foraging by top predators breeding at the PEIs. It seems possible that the ecosystem of the PEIs benefits substantially from its location downstream of an eddy corridor originating at the South-West Indian Ocean Ridge.