Antarctic Research Mission

More than 50 researchers from 30 countries are to carry out the first scientific circumnavigation of Antarctica in an attempt to measure pollution and climate change. The international team will sail on Russian research vessel Akademik Treshnikov, leaving Cape Town on December 20 and returning on March 18 next year. In a bid to gain a deeper understanding of humankind's effect on the Southern Ocean, researchers will work on a number of interrelated fields, from biology to climatology to oceanography, for the future of the continent. The projects include mapping whales, penguins and albatrosses in the Southern Ocean; measuring the effect of plastic pollution on the food chain; and logging the extent of phytoplankton and its role in regulating climate.