On February 12, 2026, the research vessel “Meteor” departed from Las Palmas (Gran Canaria, Spain) on Expedition M217. On board: a 26-people interdisciplinary team of researchers from the IOW, the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, and the University of Hamburg, who will carry out the measurements and sampling.

During the four-week research cruise, led by physical oceanographer Marcus Dengler (GEOMAR), the two IOW scientists Volker Mohrholz and Toralf Heene will carry out anchoring work for so-called CTD measuring systems. These measuring systems are anchored to the seabed and collect data on the seawater’s temperature, salinity, and oxygen concentration. The aim of the measurements is to better understand the long-term dynamics of the Benguela upwelling area. The Benguela Current is an ocean current in the eastern South Atlantic, off the coasts of South Africa, Namibia and Angola. The upwelling of nutrient-rich deep water enables a very productive ecosystem that is known for its abundance of fish and which is of great economic importance to the coastal states.

According to physical oceanographer Volker Mohrholz, the moorings in the upwelling area off Namibia have been in operation for 20 years. They are particularly important because there is little long-term data available from this region off Africa. The data collected by the automatic measuring systems provide a very important data basis for assessing long-term changes in the upwelling area. Volker Mohrholz explains that the data collected is also made available to scientists from the Namibian National Marine Information and Research Center (NatMIRC) for regional studies and environmental monitoring tasks. He also compares the upwelling region with the Baltic Sea. Similar to the Baltic Sea, there is increasing oxygen deficiency (hypoxia) in water off the coast of Africa. The data obtained off Africa can therefore contribute to a better understanding of local processes in the Baltic Sea.

The expedition is one of the last research cruises of the “Meteor III”, which will be replaced by the “Meteor IV” in the future. This is another reason why this research cruise is of great importance to the research team.

The moorings of the CTD measuring systems are installed. (Photo: IOW / V. Mohrholz)