Back from Antarctica on a sailing ship: a successful expedition!

A team of Belgian and French researchers is back from a 6-week mission studying Antarctica on a sailing ship. Key conclusions include: the benefits of this type of ship, an abundance of biodiversity, and a troubling increase in tourism. They made it back in Belgium a few days ago, after several weeks exploring the coasts of the Antarctic. With Bruno Danis -a researcher at the Laboratory of Marine Biology of ULB's Faculty of Sciences- at their head, the researchers on mission Belgica121 have completed the entire journey on a sailing ship. This is a first for this type of scientific mission, which was a resounding success: - 'The team was able to work in 15 stations and collect more than 1 700 samples in just 22 days in the area, despite the initial plan being to visit only 3 to 4 stations.' Bruno Danis. And all this with a very low environmental impact, as the team's CO2 emissions were 140 times lower than those of a traditional research mission on board an icebreaker. High biodiversity.