Main objective of the joint Nansen Legacy and A-TWAIN/SIOS-InfraNor mooring service cruise was the recovery and deployment of the projects’ moorings in the Barents Sea and north of Svalbard. Additionally, CTD stations with water sampling for both projects, a Seaglider deployment for NL, and mooring recoveries and deployments for partner projects were planned depending on sea ice conditions and time available.

The cruise left from Longyearbyen 06.11.2021 heading first to the northern Barents Sea slope for A-TWAIN and partner mooring operations. On the way to the main northern working area, two moorings were deployed at 22E. At 31E, the main A-TWAIN line, two moorings were recovered and five deployed. A short transect covering the upper slope (200-2000 m bottom depth) was made during the night between moorings operations.
After two days of work in the A-TWAIN area, the ship moved south to start Nansen Legacy mooring operations. In the M1 inflow area, four moorings were recovered and two redeployed. A transect crossing the slope was done in between mooring operations. During night, a transect from M1 to the Austfonna glacier was done before steaming onwards to recover more moorings. The following ones were recovered in the following days: M2, M5-BioAc, M5, F3-1, F2. Inclement weather prevented recovery of moorings F3-2, C, S1, S2, S3-1 and S3-2.
Despite the very short duration of the cruise, it was successful in the sense that many of the planned mooring recoveries were done. The number of redeployed moorings and CTD casts had to be reduced.