TARAJOQ

RV “Tarajoq”

“Tarajoq” is Greenland’s new research vessel for use in exploring the sea and its resources. The ship is the largest investment by the Government of Greenland in research to date. Tarajoq is also financed with support from Aage V. Jensen’s Foundations and has cost a total of DKK 235 million. Tarajoq replaces the former research ship “Pâmiut”. Skipsteknisk AS in Norway has designed the ship, and BALENCIAGA Shipyard in Spain has been responsible for the building.

The 61-meter-long, ice-reinforced ship is specially designed for sailing and working in Arctic waters and is expected to be Greenland’s platform for offshore research for many years to come. With its size and equipment, Tarajoq can sail further north and perform far more types of research and environmental tasks than has previously been possible. Tarajoq has room for 12 crew members and 20 researchers and also has room for training stays e.g. the maritime education.

Tarajoq can fish with bottom trawls and pelagic trawls and can perform acoustic surveys and measurements of fish and seabed. The ship is equipped with two laboratories for processing seafood, a chemistry laboratory, and laboratories for processing bottom and water samples.

With its navigation and communication equipment, cranes and hoists, Tarajoq can handle almost any kind of scientific work in the Arctic. An advanced multibeam echo sounder is able to map the seabed around Greenland with great accuracy and high detailing, and the ship can collect water samples and measure salinity, temperature, and depth from the surface to bottom. Tarajoq [dara’jok] means “salt” and is an older term among Inuit for the sea. Tarajoq is used in the Greenlandic language in a figurative sense – in an old way of speaking, the word is used when a speech has power and vid: okalûsai tarajuligssugput.

RV Tarajoq is run by the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources on behalf of the Government of Greenland.

Key figures

Photo: Grønlands Naturinstitut.

Here is a drawing of Tarajoq.