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NEWS
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START TO ANI FLIGHT SEASON HAMPERED BY BAD WEATHER: In what is a common occurrence in Antarctic aviation, the start of Adventure Network International's (ANI)1999-2000 air operations have been hampered by bad weather in the Antarctic Peninsula and at the Patriot Hills, the site of the company's field camp in Ellsworth Land. Planning called for the initial ANI Hercules aircraft flight from Punta Arenas, Chile, to the Patriot Hills around mid-October, however no flights by the large transport aircraft had been possible by the morning of the 26th. ANI's season opened with its smaller Twin Otter aircraft flying from Punta Arenas, via the Peninsula, to re-establish the field camp. Both aircraft were however delayed by bad weather at the UK's Rothera station en route from Chile, and as a result the Patriot Hills camp was not operational until late last week. Since then however the camp has been subjected to a long period of high winds, further delaying the first Hercules flight of the season. [ANAN-7/01]
SHIP-BASED TOURIST SEASON EXPECTED TO BE THE LARGEST ON RECORD: The 1999-2000 sea borne tourist season is scheduled to commence early in November with the departure of two vessels from South Atlantic ports. 'Explorer', operated by the Explorer Shipping Company of the US, is to leave Stanley in the Falkland Islands (Isles Malvinas) on 7 November bound for South Georgia and the Peninsula. The following day the 'Professor Molchanov' departs from Puerto Madryn on the south-east coast of Argentina for the Peninsula under charter to Aurora Expeditions of Australia. Other vessels are currently on their way south and by the end of November ten are scheduled to have commenced the tourist season in the Antarctic Peninsula and Scotia Arc region. Information collated over the last six months suggests that more than twenty vessels will conduct in excess of 135 tourist voyages to Antarctica over the next four and a half months, an increase of around 12% in the number of voyages operated last season. A small number of companies have yet to confirm their intentions for the season and the complete picture is unknown at this stage. On currrent information around 95% of voyages advertised are to operate to the Antarctic Peninsula from South America, the remainder being to the Ross Sea from New Zealand and south-east Australia. No voyages are expected to the Indian Ocean, or East Antarctic, sector. About a quarter of voyages to the Peninsula this season also involve visits to islands of the Scotia Arc, while all except one Ross Sea voyage include visits to the sub-Antarctic islands south of New Zealand en route, and a small-scale tourist operation will operate in the South Indian Ocean (see ANAN-7/05 following). Initial estimates by the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) last May put the number of tourists expected to visit the continent by sea in 1999-2000 at over 14,000, a figure which if realised would be a 40% increase on actual tourist numbers reported for 1998-99. It is difficult however to estimate how overall numbers for the season are shaping up at this time. A few companies appear to be heavily booked for the season while others are reporting 'slow' booking interest particularly in December and early January, with at least one offering 'specials' around that period to attract clients. The December-January lull reported by some appears to be connected to a general desire, particularly in the Western Hemisphere, of people to remain at home with family and friends during the lead up to the new Millennium. Just how this will impact on total season numbers will not be known for a few months. Data continues to indicate however that Ushuaia, Argentina, could still see in excess of 10,000 Antarctic-related visitors pass through during the season (ANAN-5/02 of 29 September 1999). Latest information available confirms earlier analysis that a large number of vessels will be in the Peninsula area for New Year celebrations on 31 December (ANAN-2/02 of 18 August 1999). At least seventeen ships are expected to be there around that time while another is aiming to be in the South Orkney Islands. [ANAN-7/02]
RUSSIAN VESSEL PURCHASE NOT YET FINALISED: The Southern Australian Shipping Company (SASCO) is yet to complete the purchase of the Russian vessel 'Olga Sadovskaya' for use in the Ross Sea tourist operations its proposes to commence next January but says that it still expects to acquire the ship in the next few days. Arrangements to purchase the vessel have been delayed repeatedly over the last few months (ANAN-5/01 of 29 September 1999). 'Sadovskaya', currently owned by the Far East Shipping Company (FESCO) of Vladivostok, has been operating a Russia-Japan ferry service but according to SASCO it is now in Japan ready for almost immediate departure for Australia following completion of the purchase. Even if the contract for sale is finalised in the next few days, the earliest she could now arrive in Hobart, Australia, for a planned pre-season internal refit, is towards the end of November. This will make very difficult the task of preparing the vessel for the first of the company's two planned Antarctic voyages scheduled from Hobart in the coming season. No environmental impact assessment for the operation has yet been received by Australian Antarctic authorities, which is a fundamental requirement under Australian legislation if operations to Antarctica are to take place. SASCO's announced plans for the season calls for two twenty-one day voyages to the Ross Sea from Hobart with departures on 6 January and 4 February. The company's previous plans to occupy office space at Hobart's Antarctic Adventure commercial visitor centre have not been realised and SASCO is currently making other arrangements for its headquarters. [ANAN-7/03]
OVERFLIGHT AREA EXTENDED FOR MILLENNIUM CELEBRATIONS: The Australian airline Qantas has been given approval to use a new overflight route designed to provide those on board this year's 31 December flight with the opportunity to see in the year 2000 over the International Date Line (IDL) high above the Ross Ice Shelf. Qantas, which operates the Boeing 747-400 overflights as a charter to Croydon Travel of Melbourne, conducts the majority of them to the Cape Washington, Cape Adare, Cape Hudson region of Victoria Land, although flights from Perth in Western Australia enable operations as far east as Davis station in Princess Elizabeth Land. The new route, which could be used on 31 December, involves the aircraft flying to Cape Adare, along the coast of Victoria Land, overhead McMurdo station (United States) and Scott Base (New Zealand), then due east to the IDL. Minimum allowable height for the flight in that area is just over 6,000 m. Operationally the flight has multiple safety margins built into planning, and the key challenge on 31 December will be if the weather is poor for sightseeing in the area of the IDL, whether to provide passengers with a view of 'first light' at the IDL or to go elsewhere to ensure they view the Antarctic continent. Nine overflights are planned in the period 31 October to 13 February, four from Melbourne, three from Sydney, and two from Adelaide; although all aircraft originate from and return to Qantas' Sydney hub. No flights from Perth in Western Australia are planned this season. This will be the sixth season overflights have operated since they recommenced in 1994, and to date there have been forty-three flights which have carried over 14,000 people. If all flights planned operate it will take the total number of people who have participated in these overflights since 1994 to over 17,500 on a total of fifty-two flights. An environmental impact assessment of the operations is prepared each year and submitted to Australian authorities for approval. Australian Antarctic authorities liaised with their New Zealand and United States counterparts during planning for the new route. In line with normal practice in the area the Qantas flight crew will be in contact with McMurdo Air Traffic Control prior to and during operations in the general area. The Australian Antarctic Division places Observers on each of the flights as part of the permitting process. [ANAN-7/04]
TOURISTS ACCESSING INDIAN OCEAN SUB-ANTARCTIC ISLANDS: Up to thirty-six tourists are expected to visit the French sub-Antarctic islands of Crozet, Kerguelen and Amsterdam in the South Indian Ocean over the coming New Year period in a continuation of a program commenced in 1994. Normally around thirty tourists take part in French Government voyages to the area in any one season, 159 paying passengers having visited the islands over the last five years. Most of the passengers have been French, although British, Turkish and Australian citizens have also participated. The French Government chartered supply vessel, normally the 'Marion Dufresne 2', travels from Réunion, just east of Madagascar, to the three islands four times a year to deliver supplies and change over staff. Each voyage takes between twenty and thirty days. The French Government administration, Territoire des Terres australes et antarctiques françaises (TAAF), which operates the three stations and charters the vessel, normally offers a limited number of berths on its voyages to tourists, numbers on sailings to date ranging from one and twenty-two. The cost is around $US4,600 per berth for a double cabin and $US6,000 for a single, with all cabins, which are of one class, having their own facilities. The ship's route is normally Réunion-Crozet-Kerguelen-Amsterdam-Réunion, the stay at each island varying depending on the program assigned to the voyage. Generally half a day is spent at Crozet, three to seven days at Kerguelen and half a day at Amsterdam. Due to weather, the ship is not always able to keep the pre-voyage schedule as its first priority is to carry out station support tasks; although even if a voyage is delayed passengers are not charged extra. In order to minimise environmental impacts, naturalists from various French research institutes are appointed to manage each tourist group, most being ornithologists who have wintered on at least one of the islands previously. Generally the ratio is one guide to seven passengers. At the present time no written guidelines are available for activities ashore, however these are expected in the near future. At Crozet visitors are able to walk from the station to Baie Americaine where there is a large King penguin colony. On Kerguelen they stay ashore at the main station Port-Aux-Francaise from where they can either walk or travel by tractor or small boat to large King and Gentoo penguin colonies at Cape Ratmanoff 25 km to the north-east, and to the old Norwegian whaling station at Port-Jeanne-d'Arc thirty-five kilometres to the south-west. At both places visitors stay overnight in cabins. On Amsterdam Island walks can be made to a wood of protected native Phylica trees, the only trees in the French sub-Antarctic. Occassionally, when the ship's program permits, visits to the Deception Island like caldera of St Paul Island, which lies eighty kilometres south of Amsterdam Island, are also made, and in January 1997, when the vessel was being used to support a Ham radio expedition to Australia's Heard Island, tourists were also able to visit there. The opportunities to visit either of those two islands is rare however. In order to minimise the administrative burden on TAAF, a travel agency is used to manage bookings and coordinate arrangements with clients prior to their departure. The Management Plan for the only other island group in the South Indian Ocean area, South Africa's Prince Edward Islands, does not forbid tourism, however although interest has been expressed by a number of tour companies in the past, to date no tourists have been granted access any of the islands which make up the group. A handful of other tourist vessels have paid spasmodic visits to the sub-Antarctic parts of the Indian Ocean area over the last few decades. The French program however provides the only relatively routine way of accessing most of these sub-Antarctic islands. [ANAN-7/05]
WEATHER DELAYS TRANS-ANTARCTIC MAN HAUL START: Bad weather in the Antarctic Peninsula region has delayed the start of Operation 'Chillout', the attempt by an Australian and a Briton to man haul unsupported across Antarctica (ANAN-3/01 of 1 September 1999). Pre-season planning called for Peter Treseder and Tim Jarvis to be deployed at Berkner Island by Adventure Network International (ANI) aircraft to start the journey around 17 October, however they were still in Punta Arenas, Chile, on the morning of the 26th due to bad weather (ANAN 7-01 proceeding). Once the weather improves an ANI Hercules will fly the pair to the Patriot Hills in Ellsworth Land, before a Twin Otter deploys them at Berkner Island to commence their trek. Given current progress they are unlikely to commence the man hauling journey until around 28 October at the earliest. Treseder and Jarvis need to reach Ross Island on the other side of the continent by 21 January if they are to be picked up by the tourist vessel 'Kapitan Khlebnikov' ('KK') for transport to Hobart, Australia. If they commence the trans-Antarctic journey in the next few days, they will have to average just over thirty kilometres a day to reach Ross Island in time to board the 'KK'. Planning is such that should they miss that rendezvous ANI will fly them from Ross Island to Punta Arenas, Chile, via the Patriot Hills. [ANAN-7/06]
SHACKLETON FILMING, MOUNTAINEERING TRAVERSE, UNDERWAY: Non-government operations at South Georgia have commenced for the summer with the mountaineering traverse underway (ANAN-2/07 of 18 August 1999), and the arrival of two ships to conduct filming for documentaries about Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1911-14 expedition (ANAN-6/03 of 13 October). The yacht, 'Tooluka', left Grytviken on the 11th, journeying along the north-west coast of the island to establish food and equipment depots at Husvik and Salisbury Plain for the group undertaking a traverse of the island's spine from Cape Alexandra to Cape Disappointment. The traverse group was landed at Elsehul, near Cape Alexandra, early on the morning of the 13th and reached the Salisbury Plain depot on the evening of the 19th, having made very good time. The 20th was a rest day and the next leg of the journey to Husvik was to commence the following day, however reports indicate that the weather has delayed their progress from there. After deloying the traverse party 'Tooluka' travelled around the north-western tip of the island to King Haakon Bay. The plan calls for the yacht to follow the general progress of the shore party down the island, placing depots and supporting them directly where required. Meanwhile the Shackleton filming vessels 'Akademic Shuylekin' and 'Laurel' have arrived at Grytviken, just slightly behind their planned schedule. Filming operations are being conducted in various parts of the island into early November as weather allows with support from the group's 'Laurel' based helicopter. Areas where filming is likely to take place include around Grytviken and the route Shackleton took across the island following his arrival at King Haakon Bay in the 'James Caird' in May 1916. [ANAN-7/07]
'SNOW BUGS' PURCHASED FOR THE 'MILLENNIUM EXPEDITION': The multi-national 'Millennium Expedition' which proposes to conduct sky diving and hot air ballooning at the South Geographic Pole (SGP) in December-January, reported that it had purchased ten 'Snow Bugs' in early October. The six-wheeled vehicles are required to provide key support for the expedition between its planned Patriot Hills, Ellsworth Land base camp, and the SGP during the expedition (ANAN-4/01 of 15 September 1999 and 5/08 of 29 September 1999). The expedition's US organiser, Bob Christ, visited the Minsk Bearing Factory in Belarus, manufacturers of the Bugs, on 7 October for an inspection and test drive. According to the report two units are in final assembly and another eight are under construction. Details of the Bugs, including photographs, are available at the expedition's US web site at: http://www.chesco.com/~forum/SouthPole/snowbug1.html [ANAN-7/08]
B10A ICEBERG CONTINUES ITS SLOW MOVEMENT: The B10A iceberg in the Drake Passage just north of Elephant Island has continued to move very slowly in the last month according to data collated by the United States' National Ice Centre. On 18 October the berg was reported to be near Latitude 58 degrees 29 minutes South, Longitude 55 degrees 05 minutes West, a position only 150 km east-north-east of where it was on 21 September. B10A is currently to the east of the direct ship route >from Ushuaia, Argentina, to the South Shetland Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula. Vessels transiting between the Falkland Island (Isle Malvinas) and the Peninsula, or Elephant Island and Ushuaia are however likely to pass in the vicinity of it and the many icebergs which have calved from it and which are located in its general area (ANAN-4/05 of 15 September). [ANAN-7/09]
FILMING FOR SECOND TV DOCUMENTARY PLANNED AT SOUTH GEORGIA: A two-man crew will work on South Georgia in November-December filming part of a wildlife documentary series to be titled 'The Triumph of Life'. The series, commissioned by Public Service Television in United States, will comprise six one-hour programs about the evolution of animal life and behaviour, and how genetics underpins both. The 'Triumph' group will be the second filming operation on South Georgia this season, the first, and largest operation dealing with Shackleton's 1911-14 expedition (ANAN-6/03 of 13 October 1999 and ANAN-7/07 proceeding). 'Triumph' will be filmed in all parts of the world, the aim being to record the clearest examples of how evolution works. Segments to be filmed at South Georgia, most of which will be undertaken at Saint Andrews Bay, will focus on various aspects of King penguin biology. The work will be conducted by Australians Jason Roberts and Nick Hayward. Roberts is based in Longyearbyen, Svalbard (Spitsbergen), and Hayward in the U.K. Both have significant experience in film production and have worked in many parts of the world, particularly the Arctic and Antarctic areas. They are scheduled to arrive at South Georgia on 17 November on the 'Clipper Adventurer' (Clipper Cruise Lines), and leave around 14 December on the 'World Discoverer' (Society Expeditions). [ANAN-7/10]
'PELAGIC II' IN DESIGN PHASE: UK-based Pelagic Expeditions is currently designing a new yacht for use in its Antarctic operations. According to Pelagic principle Skip Novak, the vessel now being designed, the 'Pelagic II', will be around twenty-five metres in length and be capable of accommodating twelve passengers. It will work alongside their current yacht the 16.5 m 'Pelagic' commencing in 2000-01. Both yachts are expected to continue to use Ushuaia, Argentina, as their base of operations for Antarctic work. Pelagic Expeditions specialise in providing logistic support to small groups of mountaineers, film makers and scientific teams and has used the 'Pelagic' in the general Antarctic Pensinula and South Georgia region over six seasons since 1988. This season 'Pelagic' will support mountaineering operations on two voyages to the Antarctic Peninsula region (ANAN-2/03 of 18 August 1999). [ANAN-7/11]
2000-01 SINGLE HANDED RACE TO INVOLVE SOUTHERN OCEAN TRANSIT: The route of the planned single handed, non-stop, 'Vendee Globe' around-the-world yacht race in 2000-01 includes travel through sub-Antarctic regions for much of the journey. After departure from France on 5 November 2000, yachts are expected to sail down the Atlantic and around the Cape of Good Hope into the Southern Ocean. The route planned then takes them between Kerguelen and Heard Island, to the vicinity of Latitude 50 South, Longitude 90 East, then eastwards towards Cape Horn close to Latitude 57 South. Macquarie Island is expected to be the closest they come to land between Heard Island and Cape Horn. After rounding Cape Horn competitors head north up the Atlantic to the finishing line in France, the winner being the first to arrive without stopping and without assistance. Race rules limit participation to mono hulls of between fifteen and eighteen metres. No more than twenty yachts can take part in the Vendee Globe. [ANAN-7/12]
GENERAL ANTARCTIC 'ON LINE' NEWS SERVICE COMMENCES: A new 'on line' news service which aims to deal with a wide range of general Antarctic news commenced operation on 18 October. Titled "The Antarctican", its stated aim is to "deliver the latest news and comment on Antarctic life, South Polar endeavour, the world of the ice, and the Southern Ocean around it". Stories used are collated from many sources around the world, those issued to date cover a range of subjects, including fish stock management issues, aircraft operations, Lake Vostok science planning, and a medical evacuation from the South Geographic Pole. The Institute of Antarctic and Southern Ocean Studies (IASOS) at the University of Tasmania, Australia, has assisted in the establishment of "The Antarctican" (TA) by providing web site support, otherwise the service operates independently. TA is only available via the Web and there is no intention at this stage of providing stories via e-mail. The service, which is produced by Ice Sheet Media of Hobart, Australia, is edited by Andrew Darby, a journalist with some twenty-five years' experience. Andrew has a long interest in Antarctic affairs and has visited Australia's Davis and Mawson stations in East Antarctica twice, in 1985 and again in 1998. He completed a Master of Arts in Antarctic politics at the University of Tasmania in 1994, his thesis being titled "Non-Governmental Organisations' Role in the Antarctic Treaty System". While published in the same city, "The Antarctican", which is available at: http://www.antarctican.com/ , is not associated with 'Antarctic Non-Governmental News' (ANAN). Both publications aim however to utilise the new technologies offered by the internet to provide up-to-date information on the Antarctic scene. [ANAN-7/13].
COMING MEETINGS: 25-28 June 2000. IAATO annual meeting. Hobart, Australia. [ANAN-6/14]
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