site.btaUPDATED Bulgarian Naval Research Vessel Reaches Antarctic Mainland for First Time

The Bulgarian naval research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421) reached the shores of the Antarctic mainland on Saturday for the first time during its four Antarctic missions so far.

The ship dropped anchor in Hope Bay on the Antarctic Peninsula, where an official delegation, including scientists, will visit Argentina's Esperanza Base. This happened during the ongoing 34th Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition, about three years after the ship's first voyage to the icy continent within the 31st Expedition (December 2022 – May 2023).

One of the people on board, Flotilla Admiral Boyan Mednikarov, who teaches at the Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy in Varna, said that over the last three and a half years, Bulgarian Antarctic researchers have worked mostly on the South Shetland Islands and have been dreaming about visiting the mainland.

"While carrying out the scientific programme for studying the currents in the Bransfield Strait and south of it, today we have the opportunity to be in Hope Bay as well, and we are grateful to our colleagues from the Armed Forces of Argentina for allowing us to visit their base, Esperanza," the Admiral said.

He added that this is a unique day for Bulgarian Antarctic science and in particular for RSV 421.

"We should especially congratulate the ship's commanding officer, Commander Radko Muevski, and his crew for this achievement. In fact, this is yet another new page in the development of the capacity of Bulgarian science to conduct research on the white continent," Adm. Mednikarov underlined.

RSV 421 set sail for the icy continent on November 7 from the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Varna.

BTA has had a national press club on board the vessel since 2022. In February 2024, the national news agency also opened one at the Bulgarian Antarctic Base on Livingston Island. The two press clubs exist thanks to the free support of the RSV 421 crew and of the Bulgarian base, which have provided the necessary premises. These are added to BTA's other 41 press clubs (33 in Bulgaria, seven abroad in neighbouring countries and countries with large Bulgarian communities, and one mobile called National Book Press Club).

The reports of BTA’s special correspondents from NIK 421 and from Antarctica are freely accessible in a special thematic section of the news agency’s website, entitled “Bulgaria-Antarctica BTA's Log,” in Bulgarian and English, and may be used freely by all media with attribution to BTA. According to BTA Director General Kiril Valchev, thanks to its special correspondents the agency appears among the first results in a Google search for the phrase “Antarctica correspondent”.