Bulgarian Antarctic Team Leaves Livingston Island Aboard RSV 421, Heads Home via Chile
Members of the 34th Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition were transferred by boat from Bulgaria’s St Kliment Ohridski base on Livingston Island to the naval research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421), which sailed for King George Island on Wednesday. From there, the group will continue by plane to Punta Arenas, Chile, and then on to Sofia.
En route, RSV 421 carried out transfers for Spanish researchers between Spain’s Juan Carlos I base and the temporary Byers camp, as well as at Deception Island.
Two Greek oceanologists, Dionysia Rigatou and Eleni Kytinou, conducted what was described as the first scientific dive carried out within the framework of a Bulgarian Antarctic expedition. They dived near the Bulgarian base, supported by logistics staff and the base doctor, Atanas Peltekov.
Microbiologist Snezhana Rusinova-Videva told BTA about her project studying Antarctic yeasts with potential applications in anticancer therapy, cosmetics and probiotics.
The Bulgarian naval research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421) departed for Antarctica from Varna (on the Black Sea) on November 7, 2025. After a month-long voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, the ship arrived at the Argentine naval base in Mar del Plata on December 13.
BTA has had a national press club on board the ship since 2022 and another on Livingston Island since February 2024. These are added to the news agency’s other 41 national press clubs (33 in Bulgaria, seven abroad in neighbouring countries and in nations with large Bulgarian communities, and one mobile National Book Press Club). BTA's Director General Kiril Valchev announced ahead of the fourth voyage to Antarctica on November 7, 2025 that the national news agency would send a special correspondent in January-February 2026.
He said the press clubs exist thanks to the generous support of RSV 421 and Bulgaria’s St Kliment Ohridski Base, which provide the necessary facilities.
The news items of BTA's special correspondents on RSV 421 and Antarctica are freely available in Bulgarian and English on the agency's website. They can be used free of charge by all media, with attribution to BTA. Valchev recalled that thanks to its correspondents, the news agency appears among the top results on Google when searching for the phrase “Antarctica correspondent”.