NEWS

EDITOR'S NOTE: The bulk of this newsletter was prepared during the closing stages of a voyage to Antarctica when weather conditions and operational responsibilities made the editing task even more than a challenge than it normally is. As a result a number stories scheduled for this edition have had to be deferred due to other demands on the editor's time. They will be run in future editions over the next month.

News in this edition:
44-01. High Plateau Marathon Planned By ANI.
44-02. ATCM Date Change Likely To Have Wider Impact.
44-03. Bicycle Ride To The Pole Listed For December.
44-04. 'Bremen' Control Loss Less Than Reported.
44-05. ANI Moves HQ To The U.S.
44-06. 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.

Commercial air and tour operator Adventure Network International (ANI) is offering marathon runners the opportunity to take part in the world's southern-most event in early January. The forty-two kilometre race, which is to start near Latitude 89.5° South in the Ellsworth Land sector, will be run at an elevation close to 3,000 m and is to finish at the South Geographic Pole (SGP).

Race participants are expected to gather in Punta Arenas, Chile, in late December, and be flown from there to ANI's summer field camp in the Patriot Hills of Ellsworth Land close to Latitude 80° South as weather allows. After a few days there they are to be flown 1,000 km further south to a camp that is to be established at the starting line for "a couple of days" of high altitude acclimatisation in the lead up to the event.

Given the high elevation, and the rapid changes in weather that can occur, ANI says that the race will not start unless weather conditions are suitable and are likely to remain so for the duration of the event. According to the company all participants will be medically screened prior to being accepted for the race and then monitored further on the plateau in the lead up to the race.

In order to make running easier, the snow along the course is to be compacted into a hard surface using motor tobboggans, and flags are to be placed at regular intervals to mark the route. ANI says that its planned logistics arrangements could allow up to seventy-five competitors to take part in the run, although given the $US25,000 cost involved for each participant the number of people involved may be significantly less.

During the race ANI staff will be positioned along the route to provide "water, medical assistance and encouragement" and that if an injury occurs or if changing weather threatens runners' safety, the company says that it will be prepared "to evacuate participants to protective shelter". Temperatures in early January near the Pole could be somewhere in the range from -22° and -38° C, although the apparent temperature could be a lot lower in windy conditions.

ANI says that if conditions allow the first runners could cross the finishing line in as little as three hours. All who complete the race are to be photographed at the ceremonial "Pole" close to the U.S. national program Amundsen-Scott station. At the completion of the event participants will be flown back to Chile from the Pole via the Patriot Hills as weather allows.

ANI Managing Director Anne Kershaw told ANAN yesterday that her company has been working on the marathon project for almost two years. A marathon consultant visited Antarctica with the company last year to look at the feasibility, practicality and safety aspects of the planned program, doctors have been looking at the effects of altitude, cold and exertion on the human body, and some of ANI's most experienced staff have been involved in advising, assessing and developing the logistics and other arrangements that will apply.

Another U.S. based company, Marathon Tours and Travel, has been conducting commercially-organised marathon and half marathons on King George Island (KGI) off the Antarctic Peninsula since 1995, and is proposing to conduct what will be its fifth event on 30 January 2002 on KGI (ANAN-41/13, 14 February 2001).

The planned ANI run will however be the first commercial venture of its kind on the continent itself, although personnel from a number of national program stations in coastal regions have arranged and conducted a number of such events in the past for their own amusement.

ANI says that as is normal for all of its operations a full environmental impact assessment will be prepared for long-distance event (see ANAN-44/05 following).

[ANAN-44/01]

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A six week slippage in the timing of this year's Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) is likely to impact on several other gatherings planned in the July-August period, including the annual meeting of the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO).

ATCM-24 was originally to have been held in St Petersburg, Russia, over a two week period in late May and early June, however the Russian Federation is understood to have formally decided last week that the meeting will now take place in the period 9-20 July.

The late deferral of this year's ATCM follows the cancellation, due to lack of funds, of the original ATCM-24 which was to have been held in Poland in May-June 2000. A Special ATCM was eventually organised in its place last September (ANAN-25/04, 5 July 2000), however it was of one week's duration and as a result only a limited number of issues could be discussed.

ATCMs are a key part of the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) that oversees and in a general sense 'governs', via the member nations involved, activities on and around the southern-most continent. Information is fed into the ATCMs from many other bodies, and it's decisions and requests for advice on a wide range of matters are in turn forwarded back into various parts of the ATS for implementation or consideration by the nations and groups involved.

Consultative meetings are attended primarily by diplomats and other government representatives, although observers from a number of related bodies such as the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) and COMNAP (the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs) also take part. In addition, personnel from non-government entities such as the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC) which represents conservation groups, and the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) are also there as 'invited experts'.

IAATO represents the small to medium scale sector of the ship-based tour industry, and therefore the majority of the commercial operators who work in the Antarctic region, its members carrying the bulk of tourists who visit Antarctica each season (ANAN-34/07, 8 November 2000).

Senior members of IAATO attend ATCMs as representatives of the tourism body and in some cases as accredited members of the U.S. delegation. IAATO is known to value its ability to participate in ATCMs, and while it does not have complete coverage of the non-government tourism scene, comment and advice on such matters is often sought from it by meeting delegates; and may be more so this year on issues related to adventure tourism (ANAN-41/04 14 February 2001).

Last week's decision to defer ATCM-24 until July presents IAATO with a problem however as the tour body's 2001 annual meeting is currently scheduled to be held in the U.S. in what will now be the first week of ATCM-24.

A key part of IAATO's annual gathering, which is normally held several months after an ATCM, involves its members considering the outcomes of that year's ATCM and other Treaty System deliberations. Senior IAATO personnel who take part in ATCMs normally play important leadership roles in the tour body's annual meeting, and while it has not been possible as yet to ascertain IAATO's reaction to the change in ATCM dates, it appears likely that for this reason alone its meeting will have to be deferred until late August or even September.

While the multi-national ATS has achieved much over the last forty years and ATCMs are costly and complex exercises, many experienced observers in a number of countries are concerned that there has been so much difficulty and uncertainty involved in organising the key annual meeting over the last eighteen months. Many point to the need for a permanent Treaty Secretariat as one way out of the current problems and uncertaintty, something that most nations involved appear to agree upon, however the establishment of such a body has to date been blocked as a result of political factors which in the main are unrelated to the Antarctic scene.

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U.S. adventurer Doug Stroup who earlier this year deferred his attempt to ride a specially-designed, two-wheeled, 'polar ice bike' overland to the South Geographic Pole (SGP) from the Patriot Hills in Ellsworth Land, is planning to undertake the venture next December according to information posted recently on his web site (ANAN-40/09, 31 January 2001). Stroup's site also suggests that he plans to take part in Adventure Network International's planned marathon run to the South Geographic Pole the month after his bicycle attempt (see ANAN-44/01 preceding).

[ANAN-44/03]

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The Master of the German tour company Halpag Lloyd's vessel 'Bremen' has contacted ANAN to advise that it took thirty five minutes, not two hours as suggested by this newsletter, for control to be regained of his ship after it was struck by a wave during a storm in the South Atlantic on 2 March (ANAN-43/02, 14 March 2001).

Captain Heinz Aye told ANAN that he estimates that the wave which stuck his ship "was about 30 m [in height]" and that it "covered the ship's fifteen bridge windows with a green [wall of water]". He described the wave as "a real monster" the like of which he has not seen in nearly fifty years at sea, half of which has involved operations in Antarctic waters (ANAN-4/09, 15 September 1999).

During the encounter with the wave the centre bridge window broke flooding the bridge with a very large amount of water. This resulted in the ship having no radar, navigation lights, gyro compass, echo sounder or primary VHF line of sight radio; while navigation charts and other items were thoroughly soaked and unusable for some time. The ship subsequently diverted to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where repairs were made (ANAN-42/02, 28 February 2001).

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Commercial air and tour operator Adventure Network International (ANI) relocated its headquarters from the U.K. to the U.S. last week end in a move related to last July's purchase of the company by tour conglomerate Grand Expeditions Inc. (ANAN-28/01, 16 August 2000). ANI, which closed its U.K. operation last Friday, opened offices in the same building as its parent company in Boca Raton, Florida, yesterday U.S. time.

Despite the move to the U.S. ANI continues as a Canadian registered entity. As Canada has no system for evaluating environmental impact assessments, ANI has been submitting its environmental documentation to U.K. authorities during the time it has been headquartered in Britain. It is not known at this stage if the company will continue that process or whether U.S. authorities will now play a role in the assessment process. ANI managing Director Anne Kershaw told ANAN yesterday that these matters will be addressed in the near future as it was "most important" that her company continue to operate in compliance with Antarctic Treaty requirements.

ANI owner Grand Expeditions was established in 1998 as the Luxury Travel Company (LTC) by two experienced travel industry executives, its stated aim being to acquire suitable existing operations with the aim of becoming, in its words, "the pre-emminent supplier of unique, high quality vacation experiences to up-scale travellers around the world". LTC changed its name to Grand Expeditions in July 1999 and shortly afterwards commenced a busy program of acquiring, or merging with, the seven companies, including ANI, that now make up the group. In addition the company also has its own internet arm.

ANI President Mike McDowell was quoted in a GEI press release issued at the time of the acquisition last year as saying that he believed the conglomerate had the potential to encourage more people to visit Antarctica with ANI. No details are currently available about the number of clients ANI took to Antarctica in the 2000-01 austral summer, although plans announced to date for the 2001-02 season suggests that an increase in the company's activities is probable (see ANAN-44/01 preceding).

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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

9-12 July (Washington, D.C., United States)[Subject to review?].
IAATO year 2001 annual meeting.
Contact: iaato@iaato.org (Denise Landau)(invitation required).

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

YEAR 2002

30 January 2002 (King George Island, Antarctica)
Fifth Antarctic Marathon and Half Marathon.
Contact: marathon@shore.net (Thom Gilligan)

8-19 July (Shanghai, China).
XXVII SCAR (Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research).

July [Dates/location to be set] (Europe).
IAATO year 2002 annual meeting.
Contact: iaato@iaato.org (Denise Landau)(invitation required).

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).

[ANAN-44/06]

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