Thank you very much and Good bye

On 29th August we finished the easternmost transect (stations 12-14) and reached our additional station 15 after about 5 hours of travel time. The last faunal greeting we send is a picture of a beautiful octopus, probably the species Grimpoteuthis imperator Ziegler & Sagorny, 2021. It had been collected with the last Agassiz trawl from station area 15, but was also seen on the Ocean Floor observing system before in station area 5 in the abyssal.

In the meantime all samples have been stowed into containers and the laboratories are cleaned. In total during SO293, AleutBio, we were on board RV Sonne for 44 days, 2 hours and 34 minutes, and traveled over a distance of 3631 nautical miles. We sampled 15 station areas and 952 stations using standardised deployment of our equipment. Over the course of the last six weeks, we have deployed 108,000 m of single-wire cable and 643,000 m of deep-water cable, the approximate distance from Frankfurt to Monaco. In our Access database we have recorded 1765 numbers for Kautex jars containing bulk-fixed samples and 4972 inventory numbers for sorted samples. We carry very extensive animal material and PCR products back home to our laboratories. In addition, we have informed the public about AleutBio via 40 daily blogs in two languages (German and English) via the Senckenberg Museum blog site (https://aleutbio.sgn.one/en/).

Now we will soon be leaving the RV Sonne. As much as we are looking forward to seeing our families, we will miss the sea and our time on board. Many thanks from the scientific team to Oliver Meyer and his outstanding crew from the bridge to the engine room, to the technical staff, the crew on deck, as well as the kitchen and the service area. Thank you all for your helpfulness and hospitality during AleutBio. To all scientists, colleagues and friends here on board thanks are more than due as well: without you, your constant and tireless commitment at all times of the day and night, your help and support with my work on the yellow deck and your indulgence of me, this expedition could not have taken place! Despite the very adverse circumstances with some last-minute rescheduling due to war as well as logistic problems, we already look back on a very successful expedition.

This was excellent teamwork – thank you all very much!

On behalf of all the scientists, I would like to thank the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the German Research Fleet Coordination Centre for providing the RV Sonne for this expedition as well as the necessary consumables (03G0250A) and the shipping company Briese for logistics.

Angelika Brandt, Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt/M.