ANTARCTIC NON-GOVERNMENT ACTIVITY NEWS
Tourism Industry |
Brief news items on Antarctic and sub-Antarctic
non-government expedition activities.
ANAN 62
Wednesday, 19 December 2001
News in this edition:
62-01. Lan Chile, tour ship, out of 202-03 fly-cruise plans.
62-02. Environmental group's ship confronts whaling fleet.
62-03. 'Wearables' making good progress; 'Last degree' reaches Pole.
62-04. 'Wilkins' voyage delayed due to engineer's injury.
62-05. Peninsula climbers 'recce' route to plateau.
62-06. Adventurers prepare for Peninsula stay.
62-07. New flight operation to DML commences.
62-08. Disabled adventurer prepares for kayaking venture.
62-09. Latest SOWER voyage about to get under way.
62-10. Safety harnesses save yacht crew in severe storm.
62-11. Inaugural meeting of the South Georgia association held.
62-12. 'Millennium 2000' UN exhibit postponed; other displays proposed.
62-13. Coming Events Relevant to Non-Government Activities.
LAN CHILE, TOUR SHIP, OUT OF 2002-03 FLY-CRUISE PLANS
[ANAN-62/01]
Major Chilean air line Lan Chile has withdrawn its involvement in Turismo Y Hoteles Jose Nogueira's (THJN) project to develop Antarctica Peninsula fly-cruise tourist operations, while Netherlands' based Oceanwide Expeditions, operator of the 'Grigory Mikheev' the tour ship that THJN linked to the venture, has indicated that the ship will not be involved next year.
THJN saw Lan Chile's participation in the 'One World Alliance' program as an important part of its fly-cruise business strategy, however, it says that the decision to withdraw is part of an overall adjustment of the airline's activities following the events of 11 September. A spokesman for THJN told ANAN in June that Lan Chile was to manage air-link operations, however, it indicated last week that that was not correct (ANAN-51/04, 18 July 2001).
Ute Hohn-Bowen, Oceanwide's Director for Business Development, has confirmed that no agreement had been reached with THJN for use of the 'Mikheev' and that as a result the ship will not be involved in the fly-cruise venture in 2002-03, although it is expected to conduct nine voyages to the Peninsula region that season in a similar manner to recent years.
THJN's Board of Directors is understood to be currently examining how best to proceed with its proposed operation in 2002-03 (ANAN-58/07, 7 November 2001). The company said earlier this year that it did not necessarily have to use Oceanwide's vessel for its planned operation. Overall logistics of the fly-cruise venture are such that only a small 40 to 50-passenger vessel like 'Mikkeev' can realistically be used for such operations.
Past attempts to provide a scheduled tour-ship "connecting" to an air-service between Punta Arenas and the Chilean national program's Teniente Marsh airfield on King George Island (KGI), which is the key to the fly-cruise concept, have been thwarted by poor weather at the KGI end (ANAN-17/03, 15 March 2000). THJN says that it remains confident it can overcome such problems as the Chilean Air Force, which will operate the air-link, has been flying into Marsh for many years and has "considerable expertise".
The company's web site (http://www.antarticaXXi.com) continues to reflect plans to use 'Mikheev' in 2002-03, but it is understood that the site is soon to be revised to reflect the current outlook for operations.
Schedules released for the 'Grigory Mikheev' by Oceanwide (http://www.ocnwide.com) call for the ship to operate from Ushuaia, Argentina, between 20 November 2002 and 12 March 2003. Two of the nine voyages involve nineteen-day trips to the Antarctic Peninsula, the Falkland Islands and South Georgia, one in November and the other in January, while seven are to the Peninsula area only. Two twelve-day 'Mikheev' voyages are to visit the north-east part of the Peninsula in late January, early February, while another two at the end of the season in February-March feature visits to the Antarctic Circle, with scuba diving being an option on them for suitably qualified tourists. The other three Peninsula voyages are eleven-day trips to the north-west Peninsula region in the month from 8 December 2002.
A ship operated by the international environmental organisation Greenpeace has been attempting to disrupt the operations of a Japanese-owned whaling fleet in the South Indian Ocean (SIO) as part of the group's anti-whaling campaign. The group's vessel, 'Arctic Sunrise', is a 50m-long, converted rig-tender vessel that is carrying a single Hughes 500 helicopter. It left Cape Town, South Africa, quietly late last month on a voyage that is targeting whaling and possibly illegal fishing operations north of the Antarctic coast in the SIO sector. So far unconfirmed reports indicate that visits to national program stations on the coast of Prydz Bay in Princess Elizabeth Land are also planned during the current voyage.
The five-ship whaling fleet, which left Japan on 7 November, is endeavouring to catch up to 440 Minke whales on the high seas south of latitude 55° south between longitudes 35° and 140° east until late March next year (ANAN-11/16, 22 December 1999). Those longitudes stretch roughly from Japan's Showa station on the coast of Dronning Maud Land eastwards to the French station Dumont d'Urville in Adelie Land, and are centred on the Prydz Bay region.
The whaling fleet this season is believed to consist of the factory ship 'Nishin Maru' of 7,575 gross tonnes, and four catcher ships with a gross tonnage of between 720 and 812 tonnes each.
'Arctic Sunrise' located the fleet some 700 km north-west of the Enderby Land coast last Friday, two-and-a-half weeks after leaving Cape Town. Greenpeace only acknowledged that its ship was in the region once that contact had been made, preferring to neither "confirm nor deny" what was happening before then. The very large area in which the fleet is operating would have made the task of locating it a challenge, and the Greenpeace vessel is thought to have used a range of electronic techniques and estimates based on previous catch records to find the whalers.
If her bunker capacity has not been up-graded, 'Arctic Sunrise' is likely to operate in the SIO region on its current voyage until at least late January, after which it will probably have to refuel at a port in either Australia or the African region.
Vessels that fish illegally for Patagonian toothfish in the general vicinity of the sub-Antarctic Crozet, Kerguelen and Heard Islands are also a possible target for the Greenpeace vessel. In 1999-2000 the ship targeted whaling activities early in the season (ANAN-14/08, 2 February 2000), and then conducted a second voyage whose aim was to locate illegal fishing operations (ANAN-19/08, 12 April 2000).
The current voyage is Arctic Sunrise's fourth to Antarctic and sub-Antarctic waters since the 1996-97 season (ANAN-11/06, 22 December 1999).
The Japan Whaling Association, which is made up of those who have been active in whale catching activities in the past, maintains a website at: http://www.jp-whaling-assn.com/. Greenpeace's views and further details of their activities are available on line at: http://www.greenpeace.org/~oceans/.
'Poles Wearables' pair Thomas and Tina Sjorgen are currently making good progress and are on track to reach the South Geographic Pole (SGP) before season's end in late January, while Adventure Network International's (ANI) seven-person 'Last Degree' commercial traverse is believed to have completed its brief journey to the Pole.
The Sjorgens have now been underway for three weeks and by last weekend had travelled a total of 211 km at an average of just over 12 km per day (ANAN-61/04, 5 December 2001). Over the first week of their trek when they were pulling up hill from Hercules Inlet the pair managed to make 7-9 km per day, however, since then, now that they are on the plateau and have acclimatised, they have increased to just under 20 km a day, about the rate they need to maintain if they are to reach the Pole before the end of January.
The seven members of the 'Last Degree' traverse are understood to have reached the SGP earlier this week after a 111-km ski from latitude 89° south, although confirmation of their arrival is currently not available. Led by adventurer Doug Stoup and an assistant, the five ANI clients came from Germany, Romania, South Africa and the US. The Romanian is said to be the first from that country to "ski to the Pole" as well as the oldest women (61), while another of the trekkers was aged 18 and is believed to be the youngest to ski there.
No details are currently available about the progress being made by ANI's three-person 'Ski South Pole' trek (ANAN-60/03, 21 November 2001).
Twenty image's of Stoup's 'Beyond Endurance' Expedition to South Georgia last month, including a view of the rocky summit of Mount Norman which was scaled for the first time, are available on line on his web site at: http://www.xstreamclimb.com/centerart/center3c.html (ANAN-60/05, 21 November 2001).
No mention has been made on that site of Doug's proposed 'Solo Bike to the South Pole' from the Patriot Hills since reference to it was dropped earlier this month (ANAN-61/04, 5 December 2001), and it has not yet been possible to confirm whether or not it will proceed this season.
The visit to George V and Adelie Lands by the vessel 'Sir Hubert Wilkins' (SHW) that was scheduled to be conducted over the new year has been delayed for three weeks as a result of an injury suffered by the ship's Chief Engineer during preparations for the voyage. 'Wilkins' was scheduled to have left Hobart, Australia, last Sunday, however, the engineer was declared medically unfit last week after suffering a stress fracture to a leg after falling in a doorway. The start of the voyage has been postponed to 6 January so that he can recover.
The company's principal and expedition leader for the voyage, Don McIntyre, said in a statement that there was no time for "a suitable replacement to be found and trained on the ship's systems" and that as "safety is our major priority" the decision had been taken to delay the voyage.
McIntyre went on to emphasise that the problem was "a bitter blow" for his company and crew and that he "appreciates the inconvenience caused for passengers". He stressed that a full refund would be provided to anyone who finds the new schedule unsuitable for them, although subsequent reports indicated that no one has withdrawn from the voyage, most indicating that they are pleased to now have the opportunity to spend the festive season at home.
SHW' is now expected to arrive at Commonwealth Bay, George V Land, on 13 January and depart from there ten days later for sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island after visits in the intervening period to Port Martin and the French national program station Dumont d'Urville in Adelie Land. The ship is to visit Macquarie Island on 28-29 January on the way north and is listed to arrive in Hobart on the 31st.
While at Commonwealth Bay, McIntyre's small expedition hut at Cape Denison that has been used to support three non-government winter expeditions since 1995 is to be dismantled and returned to Australia (ANAN-54/05, 29 August 2001). Yvonne and Jim Claypole, who wintered at Cape Denison in 1999 (ANAN-8/05, 10 November 1999), are to accompany the voyage and will be responsible for managing hut removal operations.
Members of the British Army Antarctic Expedition (BAAE) arrived in the Danco Coast region of the Antarctic Peninsula on 10 December on their yacht 'John Laing' in the lead up to their proposed traverse south along the plateau (ANAN-61/08, 5 December 2001). Over the last week they have reconnoitered the route from Portal Point to the head of Bayly Glacier, almost half-way to plateau level, and simultaneously commenced a heritage survey of an old whaling station at nearby Enterprise Island (http://www.baae.org.uk/).
A three-man reconnaissance party left 'John Laing' at Portal Point to try and identify the best route to the 2,000m-high plateau, establishing a camp at the base of 1,005m-high Mount Harris, before climbing higher to the head of the Bayly Glacier. There one of the climbers fell into a crevasse, loosing his ski in the process, the incident forcing the trio to descend back to the Mount Harris camp. Two other three-person groups also reached the field camp with supplies for the depot there, although by last week-end all had returned to 'John Laing' in the lead up to the next phase of route finding activities.
The heritage work at Enterprise Island is being carried out for the Scott Polar Research Institute in the UK. The BAAE has been asked "to examine the passage of time" on the artefacts left there from whaling activities carried out in the area in the 1920s. Enterprise Island is about 11 km from Portal Point and the 'John Laing' ties up there against a whaling wreck while the expedition's climbers are ashore.
'John Laing' travelled south from Stanley in the Falkland Islands via Deception Island, where it spent several days. While en route from there to the Danco Coast the tour ship 'Kapitan Dranitsyn' passed the yacht, providing its passengers with the opportunity to see a small-scale expedition venture in operation.
Adventurers Liv Arnesen and Ann Bancroft are to spend a week kayaking in either the Lemaire Channel or Livingston Island regions of the Antarctic Peninsula region early in the New Year (ANAN-51/08, 18 July 2001).
Arnesen and Bancroft are to travel south from Ushuaia, Argentina, on 28 December as lecturers on board Norwegian company Polar Star Expeditions' (PSE) vessel 'Polar Star' (ANAN-48/05, 6 Jun 2001). Sometime around 4 January they and their respective partners, Einar Glestad and Pam Arnold, will leave the ship prior to its journey north, and are to be picked up about a week later when it returns from Ushuaia with another group of tourists.
It is understood that the quartet hopes to spend most of its time in the spectacular Lemaire Channel area, camping ashore at various places in that region. If ice conditions there prove unsuitable when 'Polar Star' visits, they may instead kayak in the area around Livingston Island further to the north.
The group is expected to use a satellite telephone for communications and plans to provide up-dates of its activities on its web site (http://www.yourexpedition.com/).
The first of a new series of intercontinental flights to Dronning Maud Land (DML) from South Africa took place on 6 December (ANAN-61/01, 5 December 2001). An Ilyushin-76, heavy-lift jet aircraft made the six-hour flight to a blue-ice runway near Russia's Novolazerevsksya station carrying fifty-six persons and just over 14 tonnes of cargo.
Those on board are believed to have been national program personnel from nations including Australia, Finland, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Sweden and South Africa. Two further flights on the route planned for late January are expected to also carry tourists. Equipment for the field camps that are to house the tourists was carried south on the first flight.
Last week's flight was operated by Cape Town-based Antarctic Logistics Centre International (ANAN-61/06, 5 December 2001), for the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat.
A disabled UK adventurer is proposing to undertake kayaking activities in the Antarctic Peninsula region later this month. Glenn Shaw, who suffers from a condition known as 'brittle bones' and who is normally confined to a wheel chair, was to have left Ushuaia, Argentina, this week on the tour ship 'Polar Pioneer' with a small "specialist kayaking team". 'Brittle bones' is a congenital complaint and people who suffer from it can sustain a broken limb from the slightest knock, while a simple fall could kill them outright.
Glenn and his group, which is operating under the title of 'The Southern Endeavour Expedition', are taking part in standard off-ship kayaking and 'overnight stay' operations conducted by the Australian company Aurora Expeditions, charterers of the 'Polar Pioneer' (ANAN-51/09, 18 July 2001). The ship is undertaking an 11-day tourist visit to the north-west Peninsula region and is due to return to Ushuaia on 28 December.
Despite his condition, Shaw has travelled widely to remote areas around the world in recent years and undertaken surf, sea and white-water kayaking and canoeing ventures. He has had clothes and other equipment specially adapted for his Antarctic venture and recently trialled arrangements that will allow him to embark and disembark from his kayak in Antarctica.
Further information on Shaw's planned Antarctic visit, including a diary of activities and events and images, is available on line at: http://www.glennshaw.com/South.
Two vessels on charter to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) are to leave Hobart, Australia, this week to start a planned sixty-one day voyage to Antarctic waters south of Australia and New Zealand as part of a long-term study of whale populations.
The ships, the 'Shonan Maru' and 'Shonan Maru 2', both of which are former whale catching vessels, have been provided to the IWC by the Japanese Government for use in a research program directed by the Commission's Scientific Committee. None of the work planned involves the capture or killing of animals.
The cruise, which is being conducted as part of the IWC's long-term Southern Ocean Whale and Ecosystem Research program (SOWER), has two major objectives. The first objective is to estimate the population, size and distribution of Minke whales in the research area from latitude 60° south to the edge of the pack ice in the Ross Sea region. This will be done by the collection of photographic and other data on the whales sighted. The second is focussed on blue whales, and aims to find ways by which the 'true' and 'pygmy' versions of that species can be readily identified. This work will include the collection of skin samples for genetic analysis, photographing whales in an attempt to identify individuals, recording whale sounds, and other behavioural data.
Eight researchers from Chile, Japan, New Zealand and the US are to take part in the voyage that is scheduled to end in late February.
SAFETY HARNESSES SAVE YACHT CREW IN SEVERE STORM
[ANAN-62/10]
Safety harnesses saved three crew members after they were washed from the yacht 'Arctos' in a "severe storm" in the sub-Antarctic South Pacific mid-way between New Zealand and Cape Horn on 11 December. The yacht, which was recently renamed 'National Investment Institute' by its Australian operators Ocean Frontiers, is currently on the first leg of a commercially operated, seven-month circumnavigation of Antarctica (ANAN-58/10, 7 November 2001).
The 16.5-m yacht left Wellington, New Zealand, with eight on board for Ushuaia, Argentina, on 22 November, several days later than planned. It made good progress eastwards, averaging 8-9 knots in the next two-and-a-half weeks before the storm was encountered in latitude 54° south, shortly after the half-way point of the voyage to Ushuaia was passed.
Westerly winds that were reported to have averaged close to sixty knots and ten-metre seas hit the yacht, first washing the watch captain overboard, and several hours later knocking the craft over to an angle of seventy-degrees, at which time two other crew members were washed from the cockpit.
All three were tethered to the yacht and managed to pull themselves back on board using their harnesses and ropes. A spokesman for the yacht's operators was quoted in the Australian media as saying that the three were "very lucky their tethers held" as it would have been "very difficult to effect a rescue in the conditions".
'National Investment Institute' is currently expected to arrive in Ushuaia sometime next weekend. It was originally expected there around 9 December and was to have visited South Georgia for a week later this month. The visit there is not now expected to take place until sometime in the first half of January.
INAUGURAL MEETING OF THE SOUTH GEORGIA ASSOCIATION HELD
[ANAN-62/11]
The inaugural meeting of the South Georgia Association (SGA) was held last Friday in the historic rooms of the Linnean Society in the UK capital, London. Some 60 people from as far afield as the Falkland Islands, Scotland, and the United States attended the gathering.
Meeting chairman David Tatham, a former Governor of the Falklands as well as Commissioner for South Georgia, told those present that the SGA and its aims have the support of the Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (ANAN-59/06, 14 November 2001).
One of the group's aims is to have a "fully international membership" and it hopes to attract members from tour-ship visitors who "fall under the spell of South Georgia". It also plans to forge links with those who have in the past worked in the now defunct whaling industry on the island. President of the new association is noted mountaineer Stephen Venables.
Applications for membership should be sent to the Membership Secretary, Stephen Palmer, at stephen.palmer@fish.co.uk. Subscriptions are $US25 for one year and $US75 for 5 years. Over 80 people have joined the new association to date.
'MILLENNIUM 2000' UN EXHIBIT POSTPONED; FURTHER DISPLAYS PROPOSED
[ANAN-62/12]
A photographic exhibition on Antarctica, organised by some of the groups involved in last year's 'Millennium 2000' expedition, that is understood to have been scheduled to go on display at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York in September-October, was postponed due to the events of 11 September, and those behind it now say that it will now be shown there "some time next year".
The exhibition at the UN was to have featured photo and video materials taken during the expedition. According to a spokesman, the aim of the display is to show "the importance of remote areas like Antarctica to humankind", and "how people from different countries live on the southern-most continent free of wars and boundaries".
'Millennium 2000' was a Russia-based multinational venture that undertook sky-diving, hot-air ballooning and mechanised traverse activities in the Weddell Sea sector between the Patriot Hills in Ellsworth Land and the South Geographic Pole (SGP) in January 2000. Overall, the expedition's achievements were well below the original aims announced by its organisers, the lack of a key fuel depot at the Patriot Hills and funding limitations impacting considerably on operations (ANAN-14/02, 2 February 2000).
Several records set during the expedition have now "been accepted by the 'Guinness Book of Records'". These include: the first hot-air balloon flight over the SGP; first sky-dive from a balloon over the Antarctic (near the Theil Mountains); most number of balloon flights in Antarctica by a single expedition; the quickest land travel from the Antarctic coast to the South Pole (5 days using 'snow bugs'); largest mass sky-dive over the Antarctic; highest balloon flight in the Antarctic (close to 5,000 m above sea level); and the first woman to fly in a balloon over the Antarctic.
Members of the 'Russian Robinson Club' (RRC), a ham radio group, say they are now proposing to "up-grade" the exhibition and hope to obtain materials about "journeys to distant areas of the Globe" to widen its scope. They have indicated to ANAN that enquiries to participate have already been received from a number of "notable adventurers" and envisage the revamped exhibition going on tour to "Russian cities and towns and foreign cities". No details of places or timings have been released at this time. Enquiries about the exhibition can be made via email to Valery Sushkov of the RRC at panoramatour@lipetsk.ru. Organisers also have a Russian-language web-site at: http://antarctica.h1.ru
COMING EVENTS RELEVANT TO NON-GOVERNMENT ACTIVITIES
[ANAN-62/13]
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 2002
4-11 January (South Geographic Pole)
High Plateau Marathon (ANAN-44/01, 11 April 2001).
Contact: general@adventure-network.com
2 March (King George Island, Antarctica)
Fifth Antarctic Marathon and Half Marathon (ANAN-53/04, 15 August 2001).
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).
15-19 July (Shanghai, China)
COMNAP XIV (including the sub-committee on Tourism and Non-Government Operations).
Contact: jsayers@comnap.aq (Jack Sayers).
15-26 July (Shanghai, China).
XXVII SCAR (Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research).
3-14 September (Warsaw, Poland)
Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting XXV
YEAR 2003
July [Dates to be set] (Seattle, United States).
IAATO year 2003 annual meeting.
Contact: iaato@iaato.org (Denise Landau)(invitation required).
24 November (Queen Mary and Dronning Maud Land regions).
Total solar eclipse (See ANAN-59/04, 14 November 2001).
Next edition issued on Wednesday, 2 January 2001 @ 0600 UTC.
Deadline for items: Sunday, 30 December 2001 @ 2359 UTC.
ANTARCTIC NON-GOVERNMENT ACTIVITY NEWS (ANAN)
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.
Links provided in ANAN stories are working at the time of first publication.
AVAILABLE ON LINE TWENTY-FOUR HOURS A DAY:
ANAN archive (including this issue with its built in links):
http://www.antdiv.gov.au/goingsouth/tourism/News/default.asp
Coming events related to non-governmental activity:
http://www.antdiv.gov.au/goingsouth/tourism/Research/BibConf/Confer/default.asp
Links to tourist industry web sites:
http://www.antdiv.gov.au/goingsouth/tourism/Industry/default.asp
EDITOR: Dave Moser (David.Moser@aad.gov.au).
POSTAL: Australian Antarctic Division, Kingston, Tasmania, Australia 7054
TELEPHONE: +61-3-6232-3347 (2200-0600 UTC).
FACSIMILE: +61-3-6232-3357.
RESEARCH/WRITING: Martin Betts (Martin.Betts@aad.gov.au)
TELEPHONE/FACSIMILE: +61-3-6267-4790 (2200-1100 UTC).
FACSIMILE: +61-3-6232-3500.
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