site.btaGerman Scientists Launch Project to Study Antarctic Underwater Currents

German scientists Prof. Emil Stanev and Michel Albinos, participants in the 34th Bulgarian Antarctic expedition, launched a project to study Antarctic underwater currents on Saturday.

The Bulgarian naval research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421)) entered the Antarctic Sound, where the scientists began their study of the currents. Stanev and Albinos deployed devices with GPS at three different points to track movement over two days. The data will support research in a little-studied area.

Earlier in the day, RSV 421 traveled from the Bulgarian base St. Kliment Ohridski to Hope Bay on the Antarctic Peninsula. This marks the vessel’s first arrival at the Antarctic mainland.

An official delegation from the vessel, along with participants in the 34th Bulgarian Antarctic expedition, visited the Argentine base Esperanza, one of the few stations in Antarctica that is permanently inhabited and where families with children live.

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”.