The Institute of Oceanology of Polish Academy of Sciences in Sopot is the owner of a research vessel s/y “Oceania”, built in 1985 (general refit in 2010). S/y  ”Oceania” accommodates 14 professional and 13 scientific crew members. The vessel has an unlimited sailing range(except polar area in winter). Every year  she spends some  250 days at the sea, including around 80 days in the Nordic Seas and the Spitsbergen region(June-August).The ship also sails on more than a dozen cruises on the Baltic Sea expeditions..

This is the only one  Polish vessel adapted for a wide range of  oceanographic research in marine physics, chemistry, ecology and biology in waters all around the world. She is equipped with modern laboratories, state –of-the-art apparatus, and the means to perform oceanographic measurements down to a depth of 5000 m. These facilities are up to date. IO PAN’s staff  makes  about 45% of professional members on board, others are scientists from  other national and foreign entities, PhD students of IO PAN Postgraduate Studies, PhD Interdisciplinary Polar Studies of the Centre for Polar Studies (CSP KNOW) and others PhD students as well as university students.The results of the work carried out on the Oceania  include numerous scientific discoveries, many successful doctoral and habilitation dissertations and over a thousand research articles.

Research is conducted according to yearly plan in the frame of statutory tasks as well as national and international projects. The plan for 2017 provides for 16 cruises within all together about 232 days in the sea  (153 day in the Baltic Sea) with about 290 scientists on board.

The following cruises in 2017 deserve our  special attention:  

• Two-month expedition to the Nordic Seas  AREX 2017 is planned for 14^th June-31^st  August 2017. It will be 31^st expedition to the Arctic region. All data gained during these trips are the unique data base for interdisciplinary marine research.
• In March and in September  cruises dedicated to research within the project DAIMON – Decision Aid for Marine Munitions  (Baltic Sea Interreg Programme) www.daimonproject.com.The question which DAIMON takes up is how to proceed with the identified and mapped warfare objects. Remediation or no action are subject to the discussions among the decision-making bodies. Since there cannot be a general answer to this question, DAIMON will develop tools to support the Baltic Sea Region authorities in case-to-case decision-making.
• Deploy of three Argo floats. The Argo Poland is a component of global array of temperature/salinity profiling Argo floats. The Polish Argo programme is carried out by IO PAN. www.iopan.gda.pl/hydrodynamics/po/Argo. So far 13  Argo floats were deployed by our Institute . In 2017 we are planning to deploy next 3 floats : two  during  AREX 2017 in the Norwegian Seas and one  in November 2017 during the Baltic Sea cruise. Data received from Argo Poland floats and another Argo data sets are used by marine researchers in oceanography,  meteorology  and climate research.   

More info : www.iopan.gda.pl/oceania-pl