ANTARCTIC NON-GOVERNMENT ACTIVITY NEWS
Tourism Industry |
Brief news items on Antarctic and sub-Antarctic
non-government expedition activities.
ANAN 50
Wednesday, 4 July 2001
News in this edition:
50-01 Growth in Tourism and Adventure Activities: Challenger for ATCM-XXIV
50-02 2002-03 to See Second 'Khlebnikov' Circumnavigation
50-03 Adventurer Revises Plans But Details Under Wraps
50-04 New Route to Vinson Summit Pioneered
50-05 ROV and Microscope Add to Tourist Experience
50-06 New Centre for Stanley Visitors
50-07 Coming Events Relevant to Non-Government Activities
IN READING PLEASE NOTE: This newsletter is produced in the interest of improved information sharing in the Antarctic and sub-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 concerned.
GROWTH IN TOURISM AND ADVENTURE ACTIVITIES: CHALLENGE FOR ATCM-XXIV
[ANAN-50/01]
Development of a Treaty-wide response to issues related to the growth of Antarctic tourism and small-scale adventure expeditions is likely to present a significant challenge for delegates to the 24th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM-XXIV) which commences in St Petersburg, Russia, next Monday (9 July 2001), and runs for two weeks.
While still small by world standards, the number of tourists who visit Antarctica each austral summer has doubled over the last decade, the prime focus being on the north-west Antarctic Peninsula (ANAN-26/01, 19 July 2000). Concern has been expressed in many quarters about the potential for such activities to cause damage to the Antarctic environment, particularly as numbers are expected to further increase, and technology is slowly making many more areas accessible.
At the same time, the nature and scope of small-scale adventure activities have also increased. While some of these ventures have achieved noteworthy successes, a number have recently presented some national programs with operational problems; in some instances because it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to raise sufficient funds and/or obtain insurance for their activities. A number of reported and (so-far) unreported incidents that occured during during the 2000-01 austral summer (see ANAN-40/01 and 40/02, 31 January 2001; ANAN-41/04 and 41/05, 14 February 2001) may be discussed at ATCM-XXIV.
Consideration of both of these issues will not be easy for a number of reasons. There are practical difficulties in regulating adventure activities anywhere in the world, let alone Antarctica, where the development of workable management regimes is particularly complicated. The tourism industry, which is now well-established, will be keen to protect its interests, and the fact that some national expeditions carry tourists or support non-government programs as part of their programs for either political or financial gain will be an additional challenge. Lastly, some national goverments in the southern hemisphere have to contend with pressures from regional interests within their own countries who are seeking economic return from Antarctic activities that pass through their regions (ANAN-4/06, 15 September 1999 and ANAN-48/01, 6 June 2001), add to the complexities involved.
While difficult, many observers of the Antarctic scene contacted by ANAN over the last few days believe that the St Petersburg meeting will have an unprecedented opportunity to address the issues involved. While a single two-week meeting cannot be expected to solve all the issues, one expert being of the view that "they [the ATCM] must make a serious start, otherwise the Treaty System may, literally, miss the boat, although some think that it has already sailed".
While there is a standard item on the ATCM agenda titled 'Tourism and Non-Governmental Activities in the Antarctic Treaty Area', other discussions listed are also of direct relevance to the non-government sphere. The latter include a range of environmental matters, land use planning, safety of operations, emergency response and contingency planning, exchange of information, educational matters, and liability for environmental damage.
Papers related to non-government programs are normally tabled at ATCMs by governments and other attendees. These other papers include reports prepared by the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) on tourism. While IAATO does not represent all those who conduct non-government activity in Antarctica, member companies currently listed on its web site carry 85-90% of all non-government persons who land in Antarctica each austral summer. The Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC), an environmental group which represents some 238 members world-wide, and which has expressed concern about a number of tourism matters, is also likely to submit a paper.
IAATO is expected to table information on the outcome of its year 2001 annual meeting that ended last Saturday (30 June 2001). That meeting, which had to be brought forward at short notice due to uncertainties about when ATCM-XXIV would be held (ANAN-46/07, 9 May 2001), examined a range of important issues (ANAN-49/03, 20 June 2001). One of the major items listed for discussion last week was the future management of tourism activities (ANAN-49/03, 20 June 2001). IAATO has been encouraged over the last few years to widen the scope of its membership (ANAN-25/01, 5 July 2000), and its report from last week's meeting will be of particular interest.
ATCM-XXIV, which is set to run from 9-20 July, is the first full meeting of its kind for two years. Last year's planned gathering was cancelled and a Special Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting, which lasted only one week, was held in its place last September (ANAN-25/04, 5 July 2000).
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2002-03 TO SEE SECOND 'KHLEBNIKOV' CIRCUMNAVIGATION
[ANAN-50/02]
U.S. tour company Quark is planning to conduct its second circumnavigate of Antarctica with the icebreaker 'Kapitan Khlebnikov' in 2002-03. Next year's voyage is being offered in two segments and is to involve a rendezvous with, and transfer of passengers to, a second vessel at Deception Island in the South Shetlands.
'Khlebnikov' undertook its first circumnavigation of the continent during a sixty-six day voyage in 1996-97, starting and ending the journey at Stanley in the Falkland Islands.
On that venture passengers were landed at numerous locations and national program stations in coastal regions of the Weddell Sea and East Antarctica from Queen Maud Land in the west to Ross Sea in the east, as well as more routinely visited sites along the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula.
The 2002-03 operation differs from its predecessor in that it is to be conducted in two legs, will proceed counter-clockwise around the continent, and is to commence and end at Lyttleton, New Zealand. Despite these changes, most of the areas and locations visited in 1996-97 are to be visited again provided conditions at the time allow.
The voyage is to leave Lyttleton on 26 November 2002 and travel westwards around the coast of East Antarctica. Leg one is to end at Deception Island on 5 January 2003 where the rendezvous with the 'Professor Multanovskiy', a vessel Quark sub-charters from the Dutch company Oceanwide Expeditions, is to take place. Similar passenger-transfer operations have occurred at Deception in the past (ANAN-17/07, 15 March 2000).
The full circumnavigation is scheduled to take sixty-seven days and the Deception Island operation is designed to allow those who cannot afford the time or money involved in the full voyage to leave or join it at around the half-way mark. Those travelling on the first leg are expected to take forty-three days to reach Ushuaia from New Zealand, while the Ushuaia-Deception-Lyttleton second leg is shorter at thirty days.
The second leg of the journey involves 'Khlebnikov' travelling down the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula from Deception Island, westwards close to the coast of Marie Byrd Land (as ice conditions allow) to the Ross Sea, then northwards to Lyttleton via several sub-Antarctic Islands. Arrival in Lyttleton is set for 1 February 2003.
While 'Khlebnikov', which carries up to 112 passengers, is capable of working in ice in the areas concerned, helicopters will play a key role in operations (as was the case in 1996-97). They will provide an ice reconnaissance capability, and will enable passengers to be landed at locations where access by sea is not possible, as well as allowing flightseeing opportunities.
The ship can carry sufficient bunkers for the sixty-six day voyage, however, additional fuel for its two helicopters will have to be collected along the way. Quark plans to establish a helicopter fuel depot in the East Antarctic region with the assistance of the Russian national program (RNP) during the 2001-02 austral summer. The 'Multanovskiy' will also carry drummed fuel south for the larger vessel.
In the past the RNP has laid fuel depots at places in East Antarctica such as the Larsemann Hills in Princess Elizabeth Land and near Novolaverakskaya station in Dronning Maud Land (DML) for air operators Adventure Network International (ANAN-28/02, 16 August 2000) and Polar Logistics (PL) (ANAN-28/03, 16 August 2000). The Novolaveraskaya cache is vital to PL's inter-continental flights from Cape Town, South Africa, to the 'Blue 1' ice runway in DML (ANAN-33/02, 25 October 2000).
Russian-registered 'Khlebnikov' and its sister ship the 'Kapitan Dranitsyn' are the only true icebreakers used for Antarctic tour operations at the present time. As such, they are the only vessels capable of circumnavigating Antarctica sufficiently close to the continent to allow regular landings to take place. Both are currently contracted to Quark for Antarctic operations.
The cost of participation in next year's circumnavigation starts at $US34,950 per person, while the shorter legs are available from $US24,550.
Further information about the circumnavigation is available on Quark's web site at: http://www.quarkexpeditions.com.
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ADVENTURER REVISES PLANS BUT DETAILS UNDER WRAPS
[ANAN-50/03]
Belgian-born Australian adventurer Brigitte Muir, who last year announced that she planned to trek to the South Geographic Pole (SGP) in 2001-02, has deferred those plans to a later season and is now hoping to ski to, and climb, a so far unnamed, and reportedly unclimbed, Antarctic peak late this year.
Muir's planned SGP traverse was described last December as being an eighty-four day, 1,800-km trek along a new, previously unused route (ANAN-37/03, 20 December 2000). No further information has been released, however, and whether it will occur in 2002-03 or later depends on just when funds for the project can be obtained.
Her new plan, which she mentioned publicly for the first time during a radio interview in Australia on 6 June, is said to involve two other, so far unnamed, women, "pulling a sled, four hundred kilometres to the mountains, climbing those virgin peaks and then skiing the four hundred kilometres back to base".
There is as yet, however, no indication just which mountains next season's proposed venture is aiming to tackle, or what logistics support will be required for it. Fund raising for such pursuits is difficult and adventurers are becoming increasingly reluctant to talk about their plans until the monies required are raised lest their ideas be copied by potential rivals.
Brigitte told ANAN last week that she is now focussing on the trekking-climbing venture because she wanted to "get more practice at pulling a sled, kitting and organising a major [Antarctic] trip" before she tackled the new route to the SGP. Muir is not without experience, having climbed in many parts of the world over the last twenty-five years, reaching the summit of the highest peaks on each continent; a feat that included Vinson Massif, Antarctica's highest mountain, in 1994. She also took part in tour company Adventure Network International's 'Last Degree' commercial trek to the SGP earlier this year as a "warm up" for her planned SGP expedition (ANAN-39/10, 17 January 2001); and currently hopes to take part in the same trek next January, immediately after her proposed trekking-mountaineering venture, if time and clients permit.
NEW ROUTE TO VINSON SUMMIT PIONEERED
[ANAN-50/04]
An eight-member climbing and filming group successfully pioneered a new route to the summit of Vinson Massif last January. While there they made measurements that suggest that Antarctica's highest mountain may be several metres higher than previously thought.
The climb was sponsored by the U.S. Public Broadcasting System's (PBS) NOVA science documentary series for a film it is preparing on the science of ice that has the working title "Vinson: Trapped in Ice". Tour and air operator Adventure Network International (ANI) provided logistic support for the operation, flying the party to and from the vicinity of the mountain (ANAN-19/06, 12 April 2000).
The eight-member party started their trek on skis at the Flowers Hills, crossing both the Rutford Ice Stream and the Hanson and Dater Glaciers to get to Vinson itself. Once there the final ascent to the summit involved climbing a 300 m headwall. After reaching the summit the party was picked up by ANI from the base of the mountain. Strong winds and temperatures as low as -35° C were experienced by the party during the two-week venture.
NOVA filmed the climb and glaciological and other activities in the region using a fifteen-kilogram High Definition camera. It was carried to the summit and also used for aerial shots of the Vinson area. All up some 600 kg of fuel, food and camping equipment was hauled to the base of the mountain by the eight involved.
The climb was led by noted mountaineer Conrad Anker and included NOVA producer Liesl Clark, cameraman John Armstrong, soundman Rob Raker, glaciologist Dan Stone, journalist Jon Krakauer, and guides Andrew McLean and Dave Hahn.
While on the summit Stone took what NOVA says is the first, high-precision Global Positioning System reading made there. Subsequent analysis of the data collected indicates that Vinson is around four metres higher than previously thought. The new measurement puts the height of the mountain at 4,901 m.
Prior to last January's operation, NOVA was behind two separate expeditions to the South Georgia and Weddell Sea regions in 1999-2000 that conducted filming for two documentaries about Sir Ernest Shackleton (ANAN-18/02, 29 March 2000).
That venture, which finished with a crossing of South Georgia by three mountaineers in March last year (ANAN-20/02, 26 April 2000), filmed the large format feature film "Shackleton's Antartic Adventure" which is currently showing in IMAX® theaters world-wide. At the same time, a documentary whose working title is "Shackleton's Voyage of Endurance", was also shot for television. It is expected to go to air in the U.S. on PBS early next year and NOVA says that it also plans to release "Vinson: Trapped in Ice" at around the same time.
Both the Shackleton and Vinson films are expected to eventually be shown on television networks around the world, probably sometime next year.
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Tourists visiting Antarctica with U.S. company Lindblad Expeditions are gaining experience of the underwater world now that a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) has been added to their ship 'Endeavour'. The ROV together with a video microscope were used on the ship, which was then called 'Caledonian Star, for the first time during the 2000-01 austral summer season.
Lindblad says that the ROV has greatly expanded the experience it has been able to offer its clients. So far the company has used the vehicle in Antarctic waters to obtain images of the underside of icebergs, bottom flora, and geological formations. It says that the ROV can also be placed "unobtrusively" near penguin, seal and other wildlife, enabling passengers to see the underwater activities of each species.
The video microscope, which is connected to television sets in the ship's lounge area, is used to show marine invertebrates collected from either the seawater intake filters on the main engines, or from plankton nets deployed from either the ship or one of its inflatable boats. Lindblad has a permit from U.S. authorities for sampling operations.
The ROV used from the ship is simply an underwater video camera mounted inside a protective frame that can be 'flown' to depths of up to 170 m by the manipulation of five thrusters mounted in various parts of the vehicle.
The whole unit, which is less than a cubic metre in volume and can be handled by two people, is tethered to one of its inflatable boats by a 270 m-long control cable. If conditions are suitable, the ROV is usually deployed from the boat during the time passengers are ashore, the images obtained being recorded for playback later in the day.
At least one of the staff on 'Endeavour' voyages is an experienced diver and underwater photographer and has the title 'Undersea Specialist'. In addition to operating the ROV, that person also dives from the boat using SCUBA gear and takes further video footage with another camera for later presentation.
Lindblad sent three of its undersea specialists to the U.S. manufacturer of the ROV, Deep Ocean Engineering, last year for training on use of the vehicle.
Underwater images are also obtained from the ship with what the company calls a 'Splash Cam', a small underwater video camera that is attached to a telescopic pole. This unit enables underwater footage to be collected close to inflatables without a diver having to be deployed.
In addition to images, hydrophones collect underwater sounds of whales and other animals in the vicinity of 'Endeavour'.
Caledonian Star' was re-named on 1 June in honour of explorer Captain James Cook's accomplished sixteenth Century expedition ship. Appropriately, the ceremony to change the name occurred during the ship's visit to the north-east UK city of Whitby, Cook's former home port.
Linblad's web site can be accessed at: http://www.expeditions.com.
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A new centre for tourists visiting Stanley in the Falkland Islands is to open prior to the commencement of the 2001-02 voyage season. The centre, which is adjacent to the Public Jetty, is to replace the small cabin facility that has been on the jetty since 1996.
The two-story structure, renovated and developed at a cost of around $US400,000, will feature a three-dimensional map of the islands, examples of local produce, and act as a general one-stop shop for information on local attractions. Public toilets, which are difficult to find around Stanley, will also be available at the centre.
The top floor of the building houses Falklands Conservation (FC) whose office had been on Ross Road. FC is currently preparing an Oceanites-type guide (ANAN-10/05, 8 December 1999), due out next November, on Falkland Island visitor sites.
Around 3,000 passengers from ships travelling to or from the Antarctic Peninsula have made day visits to Stanley each austral summer over the last few years as part of their voyages.
In addition, some 27,000 visitors go ashore at Stanley from large 1,000-passenger sized vessels that operate between places such as Buenos Aires, Argentina or Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Valpariso, Chile, via Ushuaia and Punta Arenas (ANAN-5/02, 29 September 1999).
One of those large vessels is the U.S. company Holland America Westours' ship 'Ryndam', which on two of its four visits to Stanley in 2001-02 will be either on the way to or from the Antarctic Peninsula region (ANAN- 47/01, 23 May 2001).
Ship-based tourism had increased rapidly in the Falklands, with visitor numbers rising from 7,000 to 30,000 over the past four austral summers.
The Falkland Island Tourism Board's web site can be accessed at: http://www.tourism.org.fk
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COMING EVENTS RELEVANT TO NON-GOVERNMENT ACTIVITIES
[ANAN-50/07]
Please forward notice of events via e-mail to: tourism@aad.gov.au. Up-dates are made to ANAN's web site at
http://www.antdiv.gov.au/goingsouth/tourism/Research/BibConf/Confer/default.asp as soon as new information comes to hand.
YEAR 2001
9-20 July (St Petersburg, Russia).
Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting XXIV
Contact: vtitushkin@mid.ru (Executive Secretary, ATCM XXIV)
17-21 July (St Petersburg, Russia).
Antarctic Geodesy Symposium 2001.
Contact: aerogeodezia@actor.ru (Dr Alexander Yuskevitch)
20-24 August (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
COMNAP XIII (including the sub-committee on Tourism and
Non-Government Operations).
Contact: jsayers@comnap.aq (Jack Sayers).
27 August - 1 September (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
VIII SCAR Biology Symposium (Session on "Antarctic research, human impacts and environmental policy").
For registration contact: vu_conference@dienst.vu.nl
September [Dates to be finalised] (Brittany, France)
Second international exhibition for polar philately.
Contact: philex.pole@laposte.net
12-16 November 2001 (Wilton Park, U.K.)
Conference: "40 Years On: The Antarctic Treaty System in the 21st Century".
Participation by invitation only.
YEAR 2002
30 January 2002 (King George Island, Antarctica)
Fifth Antarctic Marathon and Half Marathon.
Contact: marathon@shore.net (Thom Gilligan).
Last week of June [Dates/location to be set] (Europe).
IAATO year 2002 annual meeting.
Contact: iaato@iaato.org (Denise Landau)(invitation required).
8-19 July (Shanghai, China).
XXVII SCAR (Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research).
13-18 July (Shanghai, China)
COMNAP XIV (including the sub-committee on Tourism and Non-Government
Operations).
Contact: jsayers@comnap.aq (Jack Sayers).
YEAR 2003
July [Dates to be set] (Seattle, United States).
IAATO year 2003 annual meeting.
Contact: iaato@iaato.org (Denise Landau)(invitation required).
23 November (Queen Mary and Dronning Maud Land regions).
Total solar eclipse (See ANAN-3/08, 1 September 1999).
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Next edition issued on Wednesday, 18 July 2001
Deadline for items: Sunday, 15 July 2001 @ 2359 UTC.
NEXT ISSUE: ANAN-50 to be issued on Wednesday, 4 July 2001
Deadline for items: Sunday, 1 July 2001 @ 2359 UTC. (send any items to tourism@aad.gov.au)