From the afternoon of February 8th to the late morning of February 15th 2016, CAGE at the Department of Geology Uit, the Arctic University of Norway, arranged a scientific cruise aimed at investigating water masses and planktonic faunas at the western Svalbard margin and western Barents Sea slope, also visiting methane seep sites off Vestnesa Ridge, Prins Karls Forland (PKF) and in Storfjorden Trough on R/V “Helmer Hanssen”. Investigated areas were (in order of visiting sites on the cruise): PKF, Storfjorden Fan, Storfjorden Trough, Bjørnøya Trough Mouth Fan, north, mid and south and the slope off Troms (off Malangen). Seep sites at Vestnesa Ridge were abandoned because of bad weather conditions. The scientific sampling was done within the framework of several ongoing projects at the Department of Geology, University of Tromsø: “CAGE – Centre for Arctic Gashydrate, Environment and Climate”. A total of 1 boxcore, 8 plankton net (4 multinet and 4 plankton net) casts and 14 CTD (conductivity-temperature-depth) casts were performed along the route from western Svalbard to Norway along the western Barents Sea slope. Data were also collected in Storfjorden Trough and Storfjorden – no sea ice yet. Chirp profiles and multibeam lines were acquired during transits and in Storfjorden.
The cruise may be known as: CAGE16_1