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Special Delivery

March 3, 2014

The South African icebreaker SA Aghulhas II performs a dual role as both a research and a logistics vessel. WHOI chemist Phoebe Lam got a close-up look at the ship performing both functions during a two-month cruise in the Southern Ocean and along the coast of Antarctica. Here, the ship pulled up to the edge of the ice shelf in Queen Maud Land to deliver fuel to the South African Antarctic base SANAE IV. Lam was on board with an international team that included meteorologists and marine mammal scientists to study the distribution and type of iron particles in the water that are available to feed phytoplankton.(Photo by Phoebe Lam, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)