site.btaScientific Projects Completed Aboard Bulgarian Research Vessel in Antarctica

Scientific projects were carried out on Sunday aboard the research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421).

German scientists Emil Stanev and Michel Albinos successfully completed their project involving the deployment and retrieval of three GPS-equipped instruments used to measure ocean currents in the Antarctic Sound. The next phase will focus on data processing, although final conclusions from the project are expected only after several months of analysis.

Greek oceanologists Dionysia Rigatou and Eleni Kytinou collected water samples from various depths at different locations in the strait. They are filtering the samples onboard the vessel to isolate phytoplankton, using specialized equipment installed on the ship.

The vessel is expected to continue toward Bulgaria’s St Kliment Ohridski Antarctic base later tonight, with arrival scheduled for Monday morning.

Earlier Sunday, Spanish scientists and logistics staff visited the Bulgarian base. The head of the 34th Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition, Prof. Hristo Pimpirev, presented them with a commemorative medal of the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute and his book The Antarctic Hitchhiker.

Several stages of scientific and logistical projects were also carried out at the base.

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”.