IMOS OceanCurrent has provided support from shore to several oceanographic voyages onboard CSIRO Research Vessel (RV) Investigator, Australia’s dedicated ocean research vessel. This year, IMOS OceanCurrent is going to sea! And we’ll use the information available on the website to contextualise the observations made during the voyage. 
 
In September 2026, we will join CSIRO technical staff, ship crew, and scientific team aboard the RV Investigator for CAPSTAN 06, a 13-day transit voyage from Brisbane to Fiji. CAPSTAN (the Collaborative Australian Postgraduate Sea Training Alliance Network) is a tertiary sea-training program designed to develop Australia’s next generation of marine experts. The voyage team will include 20 university students and six trainers with expertise in education and outreach, biogeochemistry, physical oceanography, geology and volcanology, marine ecology, and genomics.

The planned voyage track (red line in Figure 1) will take us through several scientifically interesting sites, including shipwreck locations for surveying, the Fraser Seamount, where upstream and downstream ocean conditions will be investigated, and the Loyalty Ridge, an Eocene island arc targeted for sediment sampling.
 
As we navigate, we’ll take underway measurements of several ocean properties and collect samples of microplastic and plankton. We’ll also deploy Argo floats and surface drifters, as the national contribution to these global programs.
 
You’ll be able to follow the RV Investigator via a dedicated voyage page (with 24/7 livestream video) and through the IMOS OceanCurrent website using our regular Sea Surface Temperature (SST) and Adj. Sea Level Anomaly (SLA) maps. These products will help inform decisions on sampling patterns near the Fraser Seamount, and provide broader oceanographic context for net tows, plankton sampling, and observations of marine megafauna. 
 
Next month, we’ll provide an overview of what ocean conditions to expect on the voyage, and in September we’ll be reporting insights from the voyage along the way.
 
The CAPSTAN program is a maritime education and training initiative of Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), and the Australian and New Zealand International Scientific Drilling Consortium (ANZIC). CAPSTAN is supported by grants of sea time on RV Investigator from the CSIRO Marine National Facility (MNF). IMOS, MNF, and ANZIC receive funding from the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS).