Stories-from-onboard-Australias-oceanresearch-vessel

[Image of Michael Veitch appears on screen]

Michael Veitch: Hi, I’m Michael Veitch and I’d like to tell you about my latest book, Southern Surveyor.

[Image shows Michael holding up a copy of his book]

Over the course of a year or so I met and interviewed some of the many scientists and crew of Australia’s ocean research vessel Southern Surveyor. It was certainly a journey of discovery for me and I hope it will be for you, too.

[Image changes to show the RV Southern Surveyor moving through the ocean]

Narrator: For ten years the RV Southern Surveyor represented the vanguard of Australian marine science.

[Image changes to show crew members working with scientific marine equipment]

On over 100 voyagers this former North Sea fishing trawler, with her distinctive blue and white livery, carried scientists and technicians across the Southern Pacific and Indian Oceans, as well as the waters off northern Australia.

[Image of crew members conducting different tasks flash by on screen]

She conducted physical, chemical, geological and biological investigations and deployed state of the art instruments to map vast, unexplored tracks of the seafloor.

[Image changes to show the RV Southern Surveyor moving through rough water]

The result is an engaging and sometimes dramatic account of their adventures, such as finding sunken World War Two shipwrecks and swirling coastal vortexes, un-discovering islands and watching predawn fireworks from undersea volcanoes.

[Image changes to show a computer generated 3D image]

But there are also stories of discovery, which tell the legacy of scientific innovation and the impact that Southern Surveyor left in her wake.

[Image changes to show the RV Southern Surveyor moving through the ocean]

[Image changes to show text: Available from CSIRO Publishing and bookstores October 2015 above the CSIRO Publishing logo and alongside the title page of a book entitled Southern Surveyor, Stories from onboard Australia’s Ocean Research Vessel, Michel Veitch]