ANTARCTIC NON-GOVERNMENT ACTIVITY NEWS
Tourism Industry |
Brief news items on Antarctic and sub-Antarctic
non-government expedition activities.
ANAN 49
Wednesday, 20 June 2001
News in this edition:
49-01 Despite Earlier Optimism, Marine Folds Leaving Debts
49-02 Company Failure Averts Potential Berth Over-supply
49-03 Wide Range of Issues for Discussion at IAATO 2001
49-04 Rescued Adventurer Speaks Publicly for First Time
49-05 Fourth 'Vendee Globe' Race Scheduled for 2003-2004
49-06 Book Details Yacht's Maiden Antarctic Season
49-07 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.
DESPITE EARLIER OPTIMISM, MARINE FOLDS LEAVING DEBTS
[ANAN-49/01]
Canadian tour operator Marine Expeditions (ME) declared itself bankrupt and ceased operation on 6 June leaving debts in excess of $US600,000 less than two months after the company announced that it was set for long-term growth (ANAN-45/04, 25 April 2001). Failure of the business is expected to reduce the overall number of berths that are likely to be available on small to medium-scale tourist ships in Antarctic waters for the 2001-02 season by as much as ten per cent (see ANAN-49/02 following).
Media reports indicate that ME's closure occured with little notice. Geoff Green, the Director of the company 'Students on Ice' (http://www.studentsonice.com) who used ME's 'Lyubov Orlova' for a thirteen-day voyage to the Antarctic Peninsula earlier this year (http://www.studentsonice.sympatico.ca), and who is believed to have had a similar agreement for an Arctic voyage, was quoted in a Toronto newspaper as saying that "They just pulled the plug.. ..there was no warning". Green's company is reported to be trying to make arrangements to utilise ships from other companies for future Arctic and Antarctic voyages.
Another possible casualty of ME's collapse may be the fully-booked fifth Marathon and Half Marathon running races which were scheduled to be held on King George Island in the South Shetlands on 30 January 2002. The races are organised by U.S. based Marathon Tours, however, support for both events was to have been provided by ME (ANAN-41/13, 14 February 2001). Marathon Tours President Thom Gilligan told ANAN last week that his company is currently investigating "a few options" which is successful, may enable the races to go ahead as planned.
ME, which was also known as '1414847 Ontario', and which sold trips under the name Canadian Venture Travel Ltd., was established last August by two senior, long-serving managers of its predecessor Marine Expeditions Inc. (MEI), after MEI was declared bankrupt in July after eight years of operation (ANAN-34/01, 8 November 2000).
MEI is believed to have gone into debt after guaranteeing loans for the World Cruise Company, a sister entity which operated voyages to Antarctica in 1999-2000 and which also went bankrupt last year (ANAN-23/03, 7 June 2000). MEI left what are understood to be significant debts world-wide and is still the subject of an on-going investigation by Canadian authorites (ANAN-34/02, 8 November 2000).
As part of its buy out of MEI last August, ME took responsibility for MEI's customer deposit liabilities of $US3.3m, and in order to protect what it says is the good will of the "well-established [MEI] brand" it also took on a range of undefined operational liabilities worth some $US1m.
ME conducted nineteen voyages to the Antarctic Peninsula and nearby region during the 2000-01 austral summer using the 128 passenger, ice-stregthened, sister ships 'Lyubov Orlova' and 'Mariya Yermolova' (ANAN-34/01, 8 November 2000), and was to have operated in the Arctic during the current northern summer and in Antarctica again in 2001-02.
Occupancy rates on last season's Antarctic voyages are understood to have averaged a solid eighty five per cent, a factor which enabled the company to sustain the fourteen per cent market share of Antarctic ship-borne tourists MEI achieved in the late 1990s with its low-price, high-throughput, approach to Antarctic tourism. These results appear to have enabled the company to lower its customer deposit debt by nearly half, to $US1.8m.
ME was very upbeat publicly about its future until recently, announcing in early April that "new investors" had joined it. At that time Canadian venture capitalist James Stewart, who is believed to have injected close to $US2M, was quoted in a company press release as saying that ME was a "terrific company" and that with the new arrangements "everything is now in place for it to realize its full potential". The Swiss-based, Russian owners of the 'Lyubov Orlova' were also said to have made "a long-term commitment to growing [ME's] business".
At around the same time of its 'new investor' announcement the firm entered into an alliance with Canada's Travel Industry Council of Ontario (TICO), a body that protects customer deposits up to a maximum currently equal to around $US2,300 per traveller. According to ME around $US1.2m of its remaining $US1.8m customer deposit debt is protected through a combination of travel agency trust accounts and TICO's compensation fund, however there appears to be considerable uncertainty whether the remaining $US0.6m will be returned to those who have booked future voyages.
Most of the funds raised last April appear to have been used to fund short-term "operational costs", ME's approach reportedly being to use any further new funds it obtained for the "significant shipping costs" associated with this year's Arctic voyages, "rather than use customer deposits for next [northern] winter's Antarctic cruises". TICO's operating rules may have forced the former approach however.
After its April announcement ME reportedly made little progress in attracting attract new investors. Bookings are believed to have been very low during April, however ME launched a promotion in May in the hope of beefing up Arctic bookings but this failed. By 25 May the situation was so serious that customer deposits received from that date are understood to have been placed fully in trust pending a resolution of the crisis.
Early June saw no further investment being found, in part, according to ME's Chief Executive Officer Dugald Wells, because of "investor concern over a possible North American recession". Wells said in announcing his company's demise that he and his colleagues had "fought very hard for the company and its passengers over the past nine months".
A message on ME's phone number is currently directing callers to the TICO while its web site is simply running a copy of the press release that announced the company's failure (http://www.marineex.com).
COMPANY FAILURE AVERTS POTENTIAL BERTH OVER-SUPPLY
[ANAN-49/02]
The failure early this month of the Canadian tour company 'Marine Expeditions' (ME) (see ANAN-49/01 preceding), appears likely to avert what appeard to be a looming over-supply of berths available on small to medium sized Antarctic tour ships in 2001-02. Prior to ME's failure some industry observers were concerned about a potential over-capacity of such berths in the coming southern summer.
ME's chartered vessels the 'Lyubov Orlova' and 'Maria Yermolova' were to have conducted a total of twenty-one voyages to the Antarctic Peninsula region for ME between 31 October 2001 and 16 March 2002. Fifteen voyages were to have been straight Peninsula only operations, two involved visits to the Peninsula and the Falkland Islands, and the remaining four included journeys to South Georgia and the South Orkney Islands. Those voyages had a total overall berth capacity close to 2,700 and if the Antarctic loading levels achieved by ME in 2000-01 had been repeated they may have carried over 2,000 tourists.
While some of ME's clients or potential clients are likely to book with other companies, the loss of such a large number of berths will ease total overall berth capacity which was expected to grown this coming season due to the introduction of the 'Polar Star', which is new to Antarctic operations (ANAN-48/05, 6 June 2001), the presence of the German company plantours and Partner ship 'Vista Mar' for what is for it an unusual second consecutive Antarctic season, and plans by other established ships to add extra voyages to their season's operations.
In addition to small to medium-scale tour vessels, the 1,266 berth vessel 'Ryndam' is to make two voyages to the Antarctic Peninsula region (ANAN-47/01, 23 May 2001), while Orient Lines 'Marco Polo' which carries up to around 500 passengers, has six voyages scheduled to the Peninsula region between 30 December and 26 February.
While no landings are planned from 'Ryndam', 'Marco Polo', which has been conducting Antarctic tour operations since 1994, normally lands passengers at Deception Island, Paradise Bay, and Half Moon Island in the South Shetland Islands. While not a member of the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO), Orient Lines adheres to IAATO's by law which limits the number of passengers that can be on shore at any one time to 100.
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WIDE RANGE OF ISSUES FOR DISCUSSION AT IAATO 2001
[ANAN-49/03]
Next week's annual meeting of the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) is set to discuss a wide range of policy and operational matters. While the key issues listed for discussion centre around the safe and environmentally sound operation of ship-based tour operations by IAATO members, also included on the meeting's agenda are discussions on the changes that are occuring in the adventure tourism field, the development of environmental monitoring projects at a number of tourist visitor sites, air-based programs, and management of 'big ship' operations.
The tour body's twelth annual gathering, which is to run from 27-30 June, is to be held in the U.S. capital Washington, and has attracted participants from as far afield as Australia, Belgium, Chile, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, The Netherlands, the U.K., the United States, and the Falkland Islands.
The core of the work planned for the four days of the meeting will involve over thirty representatives of twenty-six IAATO member companies, while some ten people from eight non-member firms are likely to take part in a range of discussions planned for day two. In addition close to fifty other representatives of governments, a variety of organisations and the private sector are expected to participate, and while they will only attend the open session on day three, their presence in Washington is expected to enable a range of less formal, but important, discussions with IAATO members to occur on the fringes of the meeting.
One of the most interesting matters listed for discussion by IAATO members next week is consideration on day two of a discussion paper titled "IAATO - The Past, Present and Future" which has been prepared by a number of the tour body's senior members. The paper may be the report into future Antarctic tourism trends and issues that IAATO indicated to last September's Special Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (SATCM) it intended to prepare (ANAN-33/04, 25 October 2000).
Some of the many other matters included for consideration in the meeting's closed sessions include: emergency contingency planning; communications; oil-spill clean up arrangements; drafts of overflight, camping, whale, seal and bird watching guidelines; the potential development of an IAATO position on Antarctic fisheries issues; and issues related to the tour body's web site.
Members will also consider decisions on membership taken over the last year, as well as applications for full membership status received from current provisional members Cheesemans' Ecology Safaris and Victor Emanuel Nature Tours, both who are from the U.S., plantours and Partner of Germany, Golden Fleece Expeditions which is based the Falkland Islands (ANAN-21/03, 10 May 2000), and Ocean Frontiers an Australian company (ANAN-36/06, 6 December 2000).
On the open day on 29 June, which will be hosted by the U.S. national program, a further range of discussions and presentations are proposed. While open to the general public, for administrative reasons persons wishing to attend on that day are required to make a formal request to do so well prior to 29 June (see ANAN-49/07 following).
During that day's the morning session, data on ship-based tourist numbers and visitor site statistics for the 2001-02 season are to be presented. These data, which have been collected by IAATO member companies each austral summer since 1989-90 and are collated by the U.S. National Science Foundation, provide important information on visitor trends (ANAN-23/02, 7 June 2000).
Also that morning a report on IAATO's 'futures' paper is to be given; a presentation on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's proposed new Rule on Environmental Impact Assessments for U.S. tour operators provided; a report on the June 2000 workshop on the potential cumulative impacts of Antarctic tourism is listed (ANAN-24/02, 21 June 2000); and an up-date on related-work being undertaken by Oceanities on the Antarctic Site Inventory project provided (ANAN-37/07, 20 December 2000).
The afternoon of day three includes: a report on Port Lockroy, the most-visited tourist site in Antarctica (ANAN-28/04, 16 August 2000); presentations on small ship tourism issues in the Falkland Islands and South Georgia tourism; and an overview of restoration work being carried out on historic huts in the Ross Sea region by the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust.
The full agenda for next week's meeting has been made available by IAATO on its web site at: http://www.iaato.org/12thmeeting.html.
RESCUED ADVENTURER SPEAKS PUBLICLY FOR FIRST TIME
[ANAN-49/04]
Adventurer Peter Bland, who was severely injured during 'Expedition Antarctic Peninsula' (EAP) early this year, spoke publicly about his accident and injuries for the first time early this month during a radio interview.
Jay Watson and Bland, both Australians, were taking part in what was planned as an unsupported sledging journey along the spine of the Antarctic Peninsula from Hope to Charlotte Bays when Peter had to be rescued after an avalanche carried him over an ice fall on the slopes above Charcot Bay on 30 January. The recovery operation involved the combined efforts of personnel and resources from the EAP's yacht 'Tooluka, the tourist ship 'Marco Polo', and the Chilean national program (ANAN-41/01, 14 February 2001).
Bland said that he was concerned about the general standard of media reporting on his accident and that he "had a great deal of pride" as to "how close" he and Watson came to completing together what he said was "the world's first unsupported" crossing of the Peninsula. The incident took place just eight kilometres from the shore of Charcot Bay, which is about 100 km short of the pair's original target of Charlotte Bay (ANAN-33/08, 25 October 2000). After the rescue Watson completed the journey to the shore of Charcot Bay with members of the rescue party from 'Tooluka'.
While he has "no memory" of the accident or the subsequent rescue effort, Bland said he was proud, now that he knew the details, as to "how professionally [the] rescue was conducted". He implied that contingency planning had been "a huge part of [he and Watson's] preparation [for the EAP] over the last two years", and indicated that his survival was "testimony" to that work. In a subsequent interview with ANAN, however, he said that had Chilean authorities not been able to fly him from near the scene of the accident his chances of survival would have been "particularly slim".
Australian authorities were concerned about many aspects of the EAP's plans prior to its departure for Antarctica late last year (ANAN-37/05, 20 December 2000), and at the time of the rescue they expressed concern in a number of print and electronic media interviews about the expedition's general lack of preparation, and that despite "strong recommendations" given to it that it did not have appropriate insurance cover.
Peter confirmed to ANAN that the EAP was not insured in a formal sense, but that he and Jay considered the presence of 'Tooluka' and what he said was the "very experienced group of mountaineers on board" as "more than adequate insurance". "We did look seriously at a formal insurance policy" said Bland, however, "with fees around $US200,000 involved it was well beyond our means". He suggested that one lesson that could be learned from the accident could be the identification or perhaps establishment of an approriate, affordable, insurance coverage for small-scale ventures in remote areas such as Antarctica.
Reliable Chilean sources have indicated that the cost of their country's contribution to rescue operations was in the order of $US50,000. Bland told ANAN that he had enquired about such matters and that if he received such a bill he would "gladly pay the money as soon as he was able", however, he said that he had been advised by a "high level" intermediary in Chile that this was not needed. He stressed, however, that he hoped to repay Chile and its nationals in some way in the future for the vital assitance they gave to him.
Bland, who only recently returned to work part-time, said that while he was now reasonably well, it was not yet clear if he will make a full recovery from the injuries he sustained in the accident. Initital reports from EAP's publicist in February indicated that doctors had expected him to make a full recovery (ANAN-42/06, 28 February 2001).
While he regained his speech fairly quickly and his broken ribs have healed, he still suffers from numbness in his feet and it will take several months to determine whether his hips, which were both dislocated, will return to normal. It also appears that parts of his brain, which were "severeley bruised" when his skull was fractured, may never recover, although Peter says that the advice of his neurologist is that there are "ways around the problems" he now has "but it may take a year before things return to normal".
Bland stressed that both he and his wife want to put the traumers of the incident behind them and said that was only speaking publicly now because the radio interviewer, who is a friend, had asked him to talk about the matter. He concluded by saying that he has "no immediate plans to take on an "Antarctic, Arctic, or Himalayan expedition", but that he "would not be surprised" if he did "in the near future when [his] life is back together and everything's going as [he] hope[s] it will".
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FOURTH 'VENDEE GLOBE' RACE SCHEDULED FOR 2004-05
[ANAN-49/05]
The fourth Vendee Globe single-handed non-stop around the world yacht race has been scheduled for 2004-05, and organisers are hoping that a fleet of up to twenty mono-hulled yachts will cross the starting line off Les Sables d'Olonne, France, on 7 November 2004.
As in the previous three races the fleet is to sail down the Atlantic and into the Southern Ocean, travelling eastward on the prevailing winds between sub-Antarctic Kerguelen and Heard Islands in the south Indian Ocean, and then onwards to Cape Horn along Latitude 57° South. After rounding the Cape competitors will head north up the Atlantic to the finishing line in France, the winner being the first to arrive without stopping and without assistance.
Race organisers are aiming to have the rules and qualification criteria for the 2004-05 event fixed by April 2002 in order to give would-be entrants more time than in previous races to secure funding and construct new boats. Those involved with the race claim that interest in it is "at an all time high" and some have suggested that as a result a limit of twenty yachts may have to be set for the 2004-05 event.
The current race record for the 42,000 km event was set by French yachtsman Michel Desjoyeaux earlier this year (ANAN-39/13, 17 January 2001). He spent ninety-three days at sea and crossed the finishing line twelve days, sixteen hours, thirty-three minutes and fifty-one seconds inside the previous best of 105 days, 20 hours and 31 minutes set by Christophe Auguin four years earlier.
TO THE TOP
A book by 'Mission Antarctica' (MA) principle Robert Swan that details the first Antarctic season, eighteen months ago, of his group's yacht '2041', has been released in the U.K. MA is a U.K. based non-government group whose primary aim is to assist the Russian nnational program in its efforts to remove and recycle some 1,000 tonnes of rubbish from Bellingshausen Station on King George Island in the South Shetland Islands (ANAN-38/06, 3 January 2001).
'2041', a participant in the first two 'Global Challenge' 'wrong-way-around-the-world' events under the name 'Challenge Business 20', was purchased by MA in 1999. Following "extensive refurbishment" in a Dutch ship yard and subsequent repairs in the U.K., it left Europe in January 2000 and travelled to Ushuaia, Argentina, from where it undertook a single voyage to Bellingshausen and back in March 2000.
The yacht's operational role is not to ship cargo but rather to deliver representatives of MA's supporters to the Peninsula area as part of the group's wider aim of promoting Antarctic environmental issues. Apart from a professional crew of three, participants in the yacht's voyages are primarily from, and are sponsored by, corporations who support MA's aims.
The 96 page, full-colour, publication titled 'The Voyage South', covers 2041's activities from the time it left the U.K. until the end of the season in Ushuaia, Argentina three months later. The book has sections about preparation of the craft for the venture, the crew, related Russian activities, and MA sponsors. It also includes a short introduction about Swan's past achievements. The softcover book is published by UK-based Hayloft Publishing. Its ISBN is 0 952 328 275 and it sells for between $US15-20 depending on the location of purchase.
After its first season the yacht spent the year 2000 austral winter in Ushuaia before undertaking three further Peninsula voyages during the 2000-01 austral summer, although one was curtailed because of the death of a crew member (ANAN-40/01, 31 January 2001).
'2041' is spending the austral 2001 winter in Cape Town, South Africa and MA plans to use it to conduct a, so-far, unknown number of voyages to the Peninsula area from Ushuaia in 2001-02. The yacht is currently expected to leave Cape Town in mid-October for Ushuaia.
TO THE TOP
COMING EVENTS RELEVANT TO NON-GOVERNMENT ACTIVITIES
[ANAN-49/07]
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
22 June (Hobart, Australia)
Conference: "The Antarctic: Past, Present and Future".
Contact: Julia.Green@utas.edu.a (Dr Julia Green).
27-30 June (Washington, D.C., United States)
IAATO year 2001 annual meeting.
Contact: iaato@iaato.org (Denise Landau).
(Please note that an invitation to attend the open day on 29 June is essential - Denise Landau or Nadene Kennedy at nkennedy@nsf.gov).
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).
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).
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)