Falkland Islands: Second expedition (26 November 2013-Alexandra)

Our second expedition to the Falklands already started. I arrived to the South Atlantic on the 6^th of November and until now I have done a couple of dives and explored the area around Stanley (the capital of the Falkland Islands). Prof. Pieter van West arrived yesterday night (25^th of November) with 14 hour delay due to the strong winds at the Falklands. The rest of our group members for this expedition, Prof. Frithjof Kuepper and Melina Marcou, are arriving on the 28^th of November.

I (Alexandra) and Pieter will be sampling seaweeds and oomycete pathogens at Saunders Islands until Friday (29^th November) and then our expedition will follow with samplings at the West Island, Falkland Sound with Shallow Marine Survey Group (SMSG- http://smsg-falklands.org/) and then Sea Lion Island.

This trip includes a lot of scuba diving for seaweed sampling at the most unexplored places around the Falklands. Please keep checking our blog for updates.

We would like to thank SAERI (South Atlantic Environmental Institute) for supporting our expedition and particularly Dr Paul Brickle. Moreover, we very much appreciate the financial support from John Cheek foundation which covered the flights for two members of the group for this expedition.