site.btaFour Members of 34th Antarctic Expedition Return to Sofia

Bulgarian Antarctic explorers returned to Sofia by flight from Rome on Tuesday, after their participation in the 34th National Antarctic Expedition. The team includes the expedition leader and Director of the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute, Christo Pimpirev, biotechnologist Kiril Kandilarov, writer Vasil Popov, and journalist Zhivko Konstantinov. 
 
"Every Antarctic expedition is different, the current 34th Bulgarian expedition for me is the best organized and has many novelties," said Pimpirev. The expedition has a very rich scientific program, with many foreign partners and for the first time, a ship flying the Bulgarian flag, and a scientific research one, reached the very continent of Antarctica. In this way, we proved to the whole world, to the maritime world, that we are a seafaring nation and can conduct scientific research in the most difficult conditions on Earth, in the Southern Ocean". 
 
At the airport, Pimpirev told journalists about some highlights of the scientific program of the 34th Bulgarian Antarctic expedition. These include a project with the University of Hamburg, that studies sea currents, temperature and salinity of water as they relate to the melting of glaciers and the global rise in sea levels. The expedition also saw the opening of the first joint scientific laboratory of the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute and the United Arab Emirates. He added that since Bulgaria is a regional center for polar research, two Greek marine biologists have dived with scuba divers into Antarctic waters to study the fauna of the seabed. 
 
"Our laboratory is already populated and Bulgaria can be proud of it, because It was visited by many foreigners, including polar explorers from Spain and Turkiye, and said they wanted to rent it, as it is very nice. With our laboratory in Antarctica, we become part of the world and the global scientific community, because we provide high-level working conditions. Many scientists from abroad came to our laboratory this year, but they are part of the Bulgarian Antarctic expedition," said Prof. Pimpirev. He explained that laboratory research must be completed in order to understand what is happening to the environment that affects the world's oceans.

On Tuesday, the research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421) departed from Livingston Island, traveling north and is set to meet with the Bulgarian community in Comodoro Rivadavia in Argentina. The vessel is expected to dock at the port in Varna on April 9. 

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. BTA Director General Kiril Valchev said they exist thanks to the generous support of RSV 421 and Bulgaria’s St Kliment Ohridski Base, which provide the necessary facilities. These two press clubs 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).

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.