site.btaBulgarian Naval Research Vessel to Sail to Barnard Point and Elephant Point for Sampling

The Bulgarian naval research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421) is scheduled to sail from Deception Island to Barnard Point and Elephant Point to collect samples. Sampling of seawater is planned both from the vessel and using a Zodiac boat for filming and surveying the seabed.

The ship's crew is also expected to hold a brief ceremony to pay tribute to members of the Argentine Navy who lost their lives after a plane and a helicopter crashed in separate incidents into Mount Barnard around 50 years ago. 

While collecting geological samples in the area of Livingston Island's False Bay and Barnard Point in late January 2024, Bulgaria's RSV 421 found fragments of a Lockheed 2-P-103 Neptune of the Argentine Naval Research Squadron (including part of the sun on Argentina's flag). In mid-September 1976, the plane crashed into Mt Barnard on Livingston Island, killing all 11 persons on board. In January 1977, during a search for the crew's bodies, a BELL 212 helicopter crashed, too, and all three crew members died. A commemorative ceremony for the Argentine researchers was first held aboard the Bulgarian vessel on February 5, 2024.

On Thursday, the vessel will proceed to Elephant Point, where further sampling will be carried out. On the return voyage to the St Kliment Ohridski Bulgarian Antarctic Base, the ship will stop at Ereby Cape and Hannah Point. There, physicist Oleg Vasilev will photograph sections of the coastline as part of a joint project with geophysicist Kiril Velkovski focused on seabed bathymetry in the area of the Bulgarian base.

At the Bulgarian Antarctic base, activities related to several project phases are also scheduled, as the weather forecast allows for boat operations.

Seismologist Gergana Georgieva will visit a seismological station installed last year for monitoring purposes.

Geophysicist Kiril Velkovski plans to carry out seabed bathymetric surveys in the area of False Bay near the Bulgarian base.

Meteorologist Ahmad Al Kaabi from the United Arab Emirates plans to visit a station installed last year at Sally Rocks and to install a new solar panel at the site.

Construction and maintenance work by the logistics team at the base is also continuing.

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”.