Routes
The Australian Continuous Plankton Recorder (AusCPR) survey will initially operate two routes in Australian waters.
- AusCPR routes (Map:Claire Davies/CSIRO)
One route is down the east coast of Australia and follows the southward-flowing warm-water East Australia Current. This region is forecast to warm more than anywhere else in the Southern Hemisphere this century. This route, from Brisbane in South East Queensland to Bell Bay in Northern Tasmania, will use a SOOP to deploy the CPR.
- The L'Astrolabe
The other AusCPR route from Hobart to Dumont d'Urville (a French Antarctic base) links with the SCAR Southern Ocean CPR (SO-CPR) survey administered by the Australian Antarctic Division DEWHA since 1991. The CPR for this route will be deployed from the l'Astrolabe, which is a French Antarctic support vessel. It is based at Hobart in Tasmania and sails each summer to Dumont d'Urville to resupply the station and conduct research in the region and across the southern Indian Ocean. AusCPR is negotiating with the French Institut polaire français Paul Emile Victor (IPEV) and P&O Polar for the attachment of CPR towing equipment at the rear on this vessel, which should be installed before the summer of 2008/09. Tows from this transect are supplemented with additonal CPR tows by other SO-CPR vessels operating between Hobart and Dumont d'Urville.