NEWS Brief news items on Antarctic and sub-Antarctic non-government expedition activities. (Also produced in Spanish) BULK DISTRIBUTION Dispatched on Wednesday, 10 November 1999 @ 0600 UTC. News in this edition: 8-01. Tourism concession system introduced for NZ sub-Antarctic islands. 8-02. New Zealand sub-Antarctic islands again attract tourists. 8-03. Shackleton filming moving to Weddell Sea phase. 8-04. 'Chillout' trans-Antarctic man-haul commences. 8-05. Third Cape Denison winter in five years nears end. 8-06. Private expeditions provide valuable Adelie census data. 8-07. Macquarie Island Marine Park declared. 8-08. SCUBA programs widening tourist scope. 8-09. Heard Island climbers to depart from Mauritius. 8-10. Human impact related studies to continue at Arctowski. 8-11. East Antarctic overflight season commences. 8-12. Australia reviewing Heard Island Management Plan. 8-13. Tragedy ends Antarctic plans. 8-14. Coming meetings. IN READING PLEASE NOTE: This newsletter is being produced in the interest of improved information sharing in the Antarctic community. Inclusion of information in it should not be taken to imply endorsement, by the publishers of ANAN News, of any company, program or associated activity that is listed, nor that the activity has necessarily completed all environmental impact assessments required under the legislation of the 'home' nation. TOURISM CONCESSION SYSTEM INTRODUCED FOR NZ SUB-ANTARCTIC ISLAND VISITS New arrangements have been introduced by New Zealand's Department of Conservation (DOC) to manage tourist access to its World Heritage listed sub-Antarctic islands this season. Following a public consultation process conducted over the last few years, DOC has allocated three companies, one each from NZ, the U.K. and the US, with licences covering most of the 600 entry permits allowed for visits to Auckland and Campbell Islands over each of the next five seasons. Previously, visit allocations were decided on a year-by-year basis, and the new process is designed in part to enable companies who regularly visit the islands to improve their long-term planning. The three companies granted the concessions are Heritage Expeditions of NZ, Supernova Expeditions of the U.K., and Zeghram Expeditions of the U.S. Each company pays DOC an annual fee for the concession plus around $US120 per person landed. This landing fee is a per day figure and persons can land at more than one location in a day. It is estimated that the concession and visit fees paid each season could total around $US55,000. While small, the money collected is important in that it provides key funds for the on-going management of the islands. The number of entry permits left after allocations are made to the three companies will be managed directly by DOC. These will be provided to yachts and any other tour companies wishing to visit on a first come, first served, basis, being managed as a 'extras' pool. Should any of the companies with concessions indicate that they will not use all of their allocation in a season, the places left over revert to DOC to allocate to this pool. Auckland and Campbell Island, together with the smaller Bounty, Antipodes and Snares Islands, are all within one to two days travel by ship from south-east NZ. A maximum of 600 tourist visits have been permitted to land at Auckland and Campbell Islands each season for a number of years, while only small boat cruising off-shore is allowed at the other three. As well as being very important in their own right these islands, along with Australia's Macquarie Island which lies nearby, provide important 'break of journey' points for tourist ships operating the week long voyages between the Ross Sea and New Zealand and south-east Australian ports. Regular commercial tourism to this region began in the early 1980s with a visit by the 'Lindblad Explorer' (now the 'Explorer'), and the number of tourists who have visited since then are estimated at less than 4,000. Heritage Expeditions is the only company that currently visits all NZ sub-Antarctic islands each season. Early in the summer their vessel 'Akademic Shokalskyi' conducts voyages limited to the five islands plus Australia's Macquarie Island. Later in the season Heritage visits either Campbell or Auckland Islands on the way to, or from, voyages into the Ross Sea. Zeghram visit the Auckland Islands as an extension of voyages around New Zealand itself, while Supernova utilise Campbell and Auckland Islands as part of voyages to and from the Ross Sea. [ANAN-8/01] NEW ZEALAND SUB-ANTARCTIC ISLANDS AGAIN ATTRACT TOURISTS The 1999-2000 season is expected to see the new concession holders conduct eight tourist ship visits to the Auckland Islands and six to Campbell Island in the three month period from 22 November until 24 February. Of the eight voyages to the Auckland Islands, five will be made by the 'Shokalskiy' (Heritage), two by 'Kapitan Khlebnikov' (Supernova), and one by 'Clipper Odyssey' (Zeghram on sub-charter from Clipper Cruise Lines). At Campbell Island four voyages are planned by 'Shokalskiy' and two by 'Khlebnikov'. Collectively these voyages can carry up to 568 passengers to the Auckland Islands and 412 to Campbell Island. Given that the voyages are unlikely to be filled to capacity, after concession needs are met this could leave around 100 places for other visitors to Auckland and 200 at Campbell. Heritage also plans three visits each to Antipodes, Bounty and Snares Islands between 30 November and 3 February as part of trips limited to the sub-Antarctic only with the 'Shokalskiy'. A total of 100-120 passengers are likely to be involved, although they will only cruise around these islands in small boats as under management plans tourist landings there are not permitted. In addition to the licencees, the Southern Australian Shipping Company of Hobart has also indicated that it would like to visit Auckland and Campbell Islands with its 100-passenger vessel 'Southern Australis' in January-February, although details are not clear at this time (click). Also Marine Expeditions of Canada is interested in a single visit by the 'Lybov Orlova' (122 passengers) in March at the end of a proposed semi-circumnavigation between Ushuaia, Argentina, and Lyttleton, NZ. The number of yachts expected to visit the NZ islands in unknown at this stage. Australia's sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island, which lies five to six hundred kilometres south-west of Auckland and Campbell Islands, currently anticipates up to seven ship visits this season, three by 'Akademic Shokalskiy', two by 'Kapitan Khlebnikov' and possibly one each by the 'Southern Australis' and 'Lyubov Orlova'. Total passenger capacity of all of those voyages is just under six hundred, although voyage loadings and other uncertainties are likely to mean that less than 500 tourists will visit the island in the four months from 25 November. On Campbell Island this season DOC plans to conduct trials on bait acceptability and rat density as part of a program aimed at eradicating rats on the 11,000 Hectare island. The agency proposes to commence the actual eradication work in 2000-01 using a helicopter to spread poison baits. If successful, the operation is expected to greatly increase the number and diversity of the island's wildlife, especially small ground burrowing sea birds which are now only found on adjacent rat free islands. No cats or mice have been found on Campbell to date. [ANAN-8/02] SHACKLETON FILMING MOVING TO WEDDELL SEA PHASE The vessels 'Akademic Shuleykin' and 'Laurel', which are being used in support of filming for documentaries about Sir Ernest Shackleton's 'Endurance' expedition, are expected to move to the Weddell Sea in the next few days after nearly two-weeks of operations at South Georgia. White Mountain Films of New York, and NOVA, the US Public Broadcasting System's (PBS) science documentary series, are filming two versions of the story of Shackleton's voyage, one a documentary for broadcast on the PBS, and the other a large format forty-minute feature film for exhibition in IMAX® theaters world wide (click). 'Shuleykin' arrived at Grytviken on 25 October while the 'Laurel', which was delayed by bad weather en route from Punta Arenas, Chile, did not arrive until early on the 29th. Filming was conducted around Grytviken and Stromness until 3 November, weather affecting operations at times. Flights of the 'Squirrel' helicopter carried on board 'Laurel' were made in that general area and along the route Shackleton took across the island in 1916. The helicopter was required to operate under guidelines set by the Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (GSGSSI), each flight carrying a GSGSSI Observer to ensure compliance with the conditions set and to advise on wildlife concentrations. The vessels then moved around the island to King Haakon Bay in the south-west where they arrived on 5 November. Here sequences were filmed involving the replica of the 'James Caird' which had been carried south on the 'Shuleykin'. Filming was undertaken of the boat 'arriving' at the cove near Cape Rosa where Shackleton and his men took shelter in a cave, and at the head of the Bay where in 1916 the six made camp under the up-turned boat. It was from there that Shackleton started his journey across the island to Stromness. The next phase of the filming program is scheduled to be conducted from the two vessels in the pack ice south of the South Orkney Islands from around 13-18 November. After operations in the pack ice 'Laurel' is expected to head back to Punta Arenas, while 'Shuleykin' is to return there via Elephant Island where the Antarctic phase of filming will be completed. 'Shuleykin' is scheduled to commence tourist operations for the season from Ushuaia, Argentina, on 27 November. [ANAN-8/03] 'CHILLOUT' TRANS-ANTARCTIC MAN-HAUL COMMENCES Operation 'Chillout', the trans-Antarctic man-haul being conducted by Australian Peter Treseder and Briton Tim Jarvis, got underway on 31 October after a two week delay caused by weather. The pair are attempting to cross the continent from Berkner to Ross Island via the South Geographic Pole without any assistance along the route (click). Treseder and Jarvis arrived at Adventure Network International's (ANI) Patriot Hills base camp in Ellsworth Land by Hercules aircraft from Punta Arenas, Chile, on the evening of 26 October after a ten day delay due to weather for that flight (click). They were flown from there by an ANI Twin Otter a day later however the two reported that the aircraft had to turn back to the Patriot Hills due to white out conditions when close to Berkner Island, the starting point of their trek. A second attempt was successful a few days later and the journey southwards was reported to have commenced from Berkner Island on 31 October. Few details of their progress have been available since then. Newspaper reports have indicated that progress has been slow to date due in part to a leg injury suffered by Treseder on the second day of man hauling while pulling a sled said to weigh around 200 Kg. According to the same reports the pair have lightened the weight they are pulling by reducing their food to 90 days supply. 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. Planning is such however that should they miss that rendezvous, ANI will fly them from Ross Island to Punta Arenas, Chile, via the Patriot Hills. [ANAN-8/04] THIRD CAPE DENISON WINTER IN FIVE YEARS NEARS END The third private expedition in five years to spend the winter at Cape Denison, George V Land, is entering its final phase before departure around mid-January. Cape Denison was given the name 'Home of the Blizzard' by Sir Douglas Mawson when he wintered there with his Australiasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE) in 1912 and 1913, and this year's winterers, Yvonne and Jim Claypole of Australia, have reported that the weather has lived up to it's reputation since their arrival in January. Winds have often averaged between fifty and eighty knots for days at a time, with gusts well over 100 knots, and although the lowest temperature has only been -33C, the high winds have kept them in their hut for long periods. Accommodation for the couple is a very compact prefabricated structure known as "Gadget Hut" measuring 2.4 m by 3.6 m and constructed of panels of high-density foam sandwiched between plywood and fibreglass. The hut, which was erected by Australians Don and Margie McIntyre for their winter in 1995, also housed a lone winterer, Alfred Winklemeyer, in 1997. The facility is operated by the McIntyres, 'rent' for year's stay being around $US70,000. Winterers using the facility are responsible for their own food and general supples, however the cost of the hut includes transport to and from Cape Denison via the McIntyre's 19 m yacht 'Spirit of Sydney'. The Claypoles communicate with the outside world via a Satellite "B" telephone, using voice links and e-mail. Through a partnership with the Education Department in the State of Victoria, Australia, Jim and Yvonne are sharing their experience with school children via an educational website http:/www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/claypoles and direct voice links with the schools. Yvonne is also writing weekly articles that appear in a women's magazine which is distributed in Australia and New Zealand. At the request of AAP Mawson's Huts Foundation they have been collecting data from sensing equipment installed inside the main living hut of Mawson's AAE which still stands on the site, transmitting information via satellite to the Australian Museum and the National Museum of Australia for analysis. This data, together with a series of photographs taken throughout the year, will assist in determining long term preservation and restoration techniques for this historic building (ANAN-2/04, 18 August 1999). They are also undertaking counts for the Australian Antarctic Division of Adelie Penguins to determine population and breeding success rates (click). The Claypoles are scheduled to travel back to Australia in the "Spirit of Sydney" in mid January provided pack ice allows their passage. 'Spirit' which deployed the couple there last January, has visited Cape Denison eight times over the last half decade, and while it has only been barred once from reaching Cape Denison by heavy pack ice, Jim and Yvonne have sufficient stores to cover a second year there should circumstances dictate. Under Australian environmental permits the McIntyres are currently required to remove Gadget Hut by the end of the 2000-01 summer and are interested in attracting further winterers to use the hut before its removal. No one is currently scheduled to winter there in 2000 however. [ANAN-8/05] PRIVATE EXPEDITIONS PROVIDE VALUABLE ADELIE CENSUS DATA Over the past twenty years, private expeditions to the Cape Denison region of George V Land have provided valuable data on the number of Adelie penguins breeding in the George V Land region, and Yvonne and Jim Claypole, the current winterers there, are continuing data collections. Adelie penguins are one of the species monitored around Antarctica by CCAMLR (the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources), and used as a broad indicator of the 'health' of the Southern Ocean ecosystem. Counts made between 11 and 30 January 1982 by Jenny Bassett and Paul Ensor, crew members of the yacht 'Solo', indicate that around 5,000 breeding pairs of Adelies were present at Cape Denison. In late 1997, lone winterer Alfred Winklemeyer counted close to 20,000 pairs in the 1.4 square kilometre area of the Cape. While those figures indicate that there has been a significant increase in just fifteen years, the rate is in line with data collected by the French Antarctic program in George V and Adelie Lands to the west of Cape Denison, and further west still by Australia in the area around Casey station in Wilkes Land. To the east of Cape Denison around the edge of the Ross Sea, information collected by the New Zealand Department of Conservation shows that the number of Adelies breeding there doubled in the decade >from 1981. For reasons yet unknown however, the numbers decreased over five years through the mid 1990s. Census work on CCAMLR indicator species are continuing around the continent and data gathered by private expedition in the Cape Denison region have provided important information in an area not often visited by Government program personnel. [ANAN-8/06] MACQUARIE ISLAND MARINE PARK DECLARED Australia announced on 29 October that it had declared the area inside Macquarie Island's Exclusive Economic Zone to the east and south-east of island as a Marine Park. The island itself is a World Heritage Area, and the Marine Park's primary purpose is to further protect the conservation values of the region. The new Park includes two management zones totalling some 16,000 Hectares. Of the two, the central core of 5.8 million hectares is to be managed as a Highly Protected Zone in which fishing, and petroleum and mineral exploration will be prohibited. The 10.4 million hectares making up the northern and southern portions of the park, will be managed as a Species/Habitat Management Zone for habitat protection. Scientific research associated with ecologically sustainable management will be a primary activity in this zone. The Australian Government plans to work with stakeholders to develop a management plan for both marine zones. No impact is anticipated to tourist vessels transiting the new areas. Information about the new Macquarie Island Park, including a map is available at: http://www.environment.gov.au/net/macquarie.html. Australia is currently assessing three other areas under its jurisdiction in Australia's EEZ as potential marine protected areas, including the sub-Antarctic Heard and McDonald islands in the South Indian Ocean (click). [ANAN-8/07] SCUBA PROGRAMS WIDENING TOURIST SCOPE While government programs have conducted SCUBA diving operations in support of science for many decades, opportunities for qualified people to experience the underwater world of Antarctica during tourist voyages are now becoming available. Australian tour company Aurora Expeditions (AE), which conducted a diving operation in the region for the first time late last year, has attracted twenty-four people for SCUBA diving on its first voyage of this season on board the 'Professor Molchanov'. Molchanov' left Puerto Madryn, Argentina, on 8 November bound for the Falkland Islands (Isles Malvinas) and the north-west Antarctic Peninsula. Conditions permitting dives will be conducted in the area of the Peninsula between Joinville Island in the north and Argentine Island in the south from 13-17 November. Due to the specialist personnel and equipment support needed for diving in Antarctica, this will be the only one of AE's eleven voyages planned for this season which has a diving component. AE's Greg Mortimer, who is Expedition Leader on the current voyage, says that diver safety and environmental issues are of fundamental concern in the planning and conduct of operations. Very close attention will be paid to weather conditions before and during operations and diving activities will be coordinated and controlled by a very experienced and qualified diving guide, while a doctor will be on duty whenever people are in the water. Dives will not be permitted under high concentrations of sea ice although they may take place around icebergs or amongst small ice floes. Those participating must hold at least an advanced open water diving qualification and, if not already experienced, have completed a dry suit course. If weather permits the first dive on the voyage is to take place at either West Point, New Island, or Carcass Island in the Falkland Islands (Isle Malvinas), an operation that will double as a check-out dive. Only if the dive guide is happy with an individual's performance will that person be allowed to dive in the Antarctic Peninsula area later in the voyage. The depth of dives will be strictly limited to avoid problems associated with decompression illness (commonly known as 'the bends') and nitrogen narcosis, and each venture underwater will be limited to thirty minutes. Dive sites will be chosen for accessibility, water clarity, underwater attractions and safety. Diving activities will take place at a reasonable distance from penguin colonies and no interference with benthos will be permitted. Divers are responsible for bringing their own SCUBA equipment, apart >from tanks and lead weights. [ANAN-8/08] HEARD ISLAND CLIMBERS TO DEPART FROM MAURITIUS The four man group which will attempt to climb Heard Island in the South Indian Ocean in December is schedule to leave Mauritius in the south-west Indian Ocean for the island towards the end of next week. Transport to and from the island will be provided by a vessel of the Western Australian fishing company Austral Fisheries (AF). Original AF plans were for the vessel involved to leave from and return to Albany in Western Australia (click), however changes related to the ship's operations necessitated that it leave from Mauritius. The vessel is expected to return the climbers to Albany at the end of the expedition in late December or early January. [ANAN-8/09] HUMAN IMPACT RELATED STUDIES TO CONTINUE AT ARCTOWSKI Research is to continue this season at Poland's Henryk Arctowski Station on King George Island in the South Shetlands and the nearby area around Penguin Island and Turret Point, into a range of studies designed to improve the management of humans visiting the Antarctic region. Polish authorities established a range of walking routes for tourists in the vicinity of Arctowski and erected a visitor interpretation centre on site several years ago (click). This year's work, which is being led by Dr Bernard Stonehouse of the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) in the U.K. and Dr John Snyder of the University of Colorado in the U.S., involves cooperation with biologists from two German institutions, the Phillips University of Marburg and University of Jena. Bernard will supervise Kathrin Schuster (Marburg) in her studies of the incubation and brooding in Adelie and Chinstrap penguins in the presence of human visitors. This work arises from similar work by Stonehouse and Amanda Nimon on gentoo penguins at Cuverville Island. The equipment for the project, which was developed at SPRI, will later be used by Kathrin and Simone Pfeiffer (Jena) in similar studies of Giant petrels and Brown skuas at Turret Point and Penguin Island. In addition, Bernard will also check the tourist trail and other transects at Arctowski Station as part of a long-term Polish-UK botanical study on human-induced damage to vegetation. Stonehouse and Snyder also plan to continue fine-scale topographic and ecological mapping at Turret Point, Penguin Island and possibly Cape Vaureal and, using a GPS (Global positioning system) technique and photography. Their objective is to assess what minimal information is required to create meaningful management plans consistent with the Madrid Protocol, for areas that are used, or likely to be used, as tourist landing sites. In a parallel study John will evaluate the suitability of U.S. Wilderness Management Techniques for application to wilderness areas in Antarctica, using Arctowski Station and the designated areas as models. The research is conducted in cooperation with the Department of Antarctic Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences. Transport to and from Arctowski is courtesy of the Explorer Shipping Company of the U.S. Bernard and John left Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands on 7 November on board the 'Explorer' and are due to return on it to Ushuaia, Argentina in mid-December after just over three weeks at Arctowski. [ANAN-8/10] EAST ANTARCTIC OVERFLIGHT SEASON COMMENCES The first of nine half-day overflights scheduled from Australia to the East Antarctic region this season was conducted on 31 October. A Qantas Boeing 747-400 aircraft on charter to Australian company Croydon Travel carried 375 passengers and 21 crew on the eleven hour twenty minute round-trip flight from Melbourne to the northern parts of Victoria, Oates and George V Lands north-west of the Ross Sea. Just over three hours were spent viewing the continent, areas overflown including the former Russian Antarctic station Leningradskaya, Mount Minto, Mount Melbourne, Cape Adare, the Mertz Glacier and Commonwealth Bay. Air ground question and answer sessions were conducted from the aircraft via satellite telephone to staff at Australia's Casey and Macquarie Island stations, and to the private expeditioners wintering at Commonwealth Bay (click). The aircraft was south of Latitude 60 degrees for just over five hours. The next flight in the series is scheduled for 28 November from Sydney and weather permitting will operate in the same general area. The season's third flight on New Year's Eve may use a new route over McMurdo station and Scott Base (U.S. and New Zealand respectively) and east to the International Date Line (click). [ANAN-8/11] AUSTRALIA REVIEWING HEARD ISLAND MANAGEMENT PLAN The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) has commenced a review of the Management Plan for the Heard Island Wilderness Reserve (HIWRMP) and aims to issue a revised edition in June 2001. The current Plan was issued in 1995 and the island, which lies in the South Indian Ocean, became a World Heritage Site in December 1997. Under the current Management Plan recreational visits such as tourism and adventure pursuits are allowed, and a permit to land is issued by the AAD provided impacts associated with the activity proposed are assessed as being minimal. It is not proposed at this time to change the general access conditions that currently apply for visits to the island, although all aspects of the island's management will be examined as part of the review. Field studies related to revision of the Plan are scheduled to be conduct on the island by the AAD in 2000-01. The review is not directly connected with the assessment currently being made into the establish of marine protected areas in the vicinity of Heard Island (click). The current HIWRMP is available at: http://www.aad.gov.au/environment/siteman.html. Comments on, or queries about, the Plan for consideration in the review are welcomed by the AAD and should be forwarded to: ems@aad.gov.au. Under Australian Legislation, Management Plans for the island and its marine area must be approved by Australia's Federal Parliament. [ANAN-8/12] TRAGEDY ENDS ANTARCTIC PLANS Ivan Sedich, of Perth, Western Australia, who was preparing to visit Antarctica by yacht in January, was killed in a car accident on 25 October. Sedich, 57, had planned to leave Perth in December on his eleven metre yacht 'Sana' and visit Commonwealth Bay, George V Land, as part of a round the world voyage (click). [ANAN-8/13] COMING MEETINGS IAATO annual meeting. Hobart, Australia, 25-28 June 2000. [ANAN-8/14]