ANTARCTIC NON-GOVERNMENT ACTIVITY NEWS

News in this edition:

47-01. 'Ryndam' Listed For Lemaire Channel Transit
47-02. Delivery Of New 'World Discoverer' Delayed
47-03. 'Ultimate Walk' Delayed To 2002-03
47-04. Peninsula Overflights Advertised For 2001-02
47-05. 'Together Alone' Yacht Race Cancelled
47-06. 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.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Previous editions of ANAN have been researched, written and edited by Martin Betts, Senior Policy Officer, Non-government Activities at the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD). Martin resigned from the AAD on 2 May this year. The editor would like to thank Martin for his dedication and enthusiasm in the genesis and ongoing production of ANAN over the past two years. It is envisaged that Martin, as a consultant to the AAD, will research and prepare material for (this and) future issues of ANAN. Any comments on ANAN or material for future articles should be forwarded to the Editor at tourism@aad.gov.au.

U.S. company Holland America Line Westours (HALW) plans to take its 1,266 passenger cruise ship 'Ryndam' through the spectacular Lemaire Channel in January 2002 during one of two visits it is scheduled to make to the Antarctic Peninsula region next austral summer. The visit of the ship follows the successful voyage of HALW's 'Rotterdam' to the Peninsula in January 2000 which also included a transit of the Lemaire Channel (ANAN-19/03, 12 April 2000).

Ryndam's two Peninsula visits will be operated as extensions of austral summer cruise operations that the ship, along with those of several other companies, has conducted in recent southern hemisphere summers around the coast of South America between Valparaiso, Chile, and east coast ports such as Buenos Aires, Argentina (ANAN-5/02, 29 September 1999). Several other large cruise ship operators have expressed an interest in visiting the Peninsula, however, to date no firm plans have been announced (ANAN-33/05, 25 October 2000).

'Ryndam', which is one of ten large cruise ships operated by HALW, is 219 m long, 31 m wide and is of 55,451 gross registered tonnes. It is slightly smaller than the 'Rotterdam' (ANAN-13/01, 19 January 2000). Built in Italy in 1994, and registered in The Netherlands, 'Ryndam' has ten decks and 633 cabins, around a quarter of them having balconies, and is normally operated by a crew of 557.

In 2001-02 the ship is scheduled to conduct four journeys each way between Valparaiso and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil between mid-November and early-April, the southern ports such as Punta Arenas, Chile, Ushuaia, Argentina, and Stanley in the Falkland Islands being visited on each voyage. The 4 January sailing from Rio and the return 25 January voyage from Valparaiso will continue south from those ports to the Peninsula region.

According to HALW's web site, the first of Ryndam's two 'Antarctic Explorer' voyages is to visit Stanley on 13 January, Elephant Island the next day, then travel to the vicinity of Hope Bay near the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula on the 15th. If ice conditions allow, the vessel is to pass through the Neumayer and Lemaire Channels and on to Petermann Island on 16-17 January, and from there will head north for Ushuaia, Punta Arenas, and eventually Valparaiso.

The second 'Ryndam' Peninsula voyage is to visit Ushuaia on 31 January, two days later arriving in the vicinity of the U.S. Palmer Station on southern Anvers Island, before visiting Deception Island on 3 February, and Hope Bay on the fourth. The ship then travels directly to Stanley where it is due on 6 February.

Like the visit of 'Rotterdam' early last year, passengers will not disembark during either of the 'Ryndam's' visits to the Peninsula.

HALW's web site indicates that 'Ryndam' is scheduled to operate in the South American region again in 2002-03, although the itinerary does not extend beyond 31 December 2002 at this time. While there is no direct indication at this stage that the ship will visit the Antarctic Peninsula region again in January-February 2003, given that the positioning of the ship in that season is very similar to the 2001-02 schedule, such visits would be feasible.

National program operators, the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO), environmentalists and others have been concerned for some time about the visits of large ships to Antarctic waters. IAATO announced in a paper submitted to last year's Special Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting that it intended to conduct a study into future visits by large, 400 plus, passenger vessels to Antarctica, and that it is considering opening its membership to the operators of such vessels (ANAN-33/04, 25 October 2000 and ANAN-1/4, 4 August 1999).

Details of the 'Ryndam' and its schedules in the South American region are available on line at: http://www.hollandamerica.com/explore/explore.htm

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German-owned Society Expeditions, whose long-serving tour vessel 'World Discoverer' was lost after it struck an unchartered rock in the south-west Pacific in April last year (ANAN-25/05, 5 July 2000), says that the recent three-month delay in the delivery of its new ship will not affect the seven Antarctic voyages it has scheduled for the austral summer of 2001-02.

The new vessel, the former 'Dream 21', which has been named for its predecessor, was expected to commence tour operations from northern Japan this week, however, delivery is now not expected until 25 August. No reason was given for the delay, which has forced the company to cancel five of its north Pacific voyages announced last January.

'Dream 21' was constructed in Finland's Rauma-Reploa yard in 1989, however, little detail is currently available about her previous history, whether Society has purchased or will charter her, or what work has been, or is being done, to prepare her for tour operations.

The new 'World Discoverer', which will carry twelve 'Zodiac' landing craft, is larger than its predecessor, having a length of 118 m and being of 6,000 Gross Registered Tonnes (GRT); the original 'World Discoverer' was 87 m long and of 3,724 GRT. The new vessel, which carries 160 passengers, 24 more than the old vessel, is registered in the Bahamas, has a crew of ninety and is ice-strengthened.

Society almost purchased another vessel last June, however, that ship's owners are reported to have rescinded their offer only a few days before an agreement was to have been finalised. Attempts to find another suitable vessel in the last half of last year were not successful and this led to Society's 2000-01 Antarctic operations being cancelled (ANAN-29/01, 30 August 2000).

A range of voyages is being advertised for the new vessel, those released to date concentrating on northern and central Pacific regions in addition to Antarctica. Prior to the announcement of the delay, operations to far eastern Russian and Alaskan waters were to have commenced in late May and continued until late August, with the ship then expected to work its way southwards to Papua-New Guinea and across the south-central Pacific in a series of voyages that will end at Easter Island on 10 November. From there the vessel is due to travel to Punta Arenas where Antarctic operations are to commence on 19 November.

All of the seven Antarctic voyages scheduled for the 2001-02 austral summer are to take place in the South Atlantic sector, itineraries being very similar to those operated by the company in the late 1990s. During the 112-day season, five voyages will be made to the Antarctic Peninsula and the islands of the Scotia Arc, the other two being to the Peninsula only. While the season starts and ends in Punta Arenas as part of positioning arrangements for its Pacific region operations, all other voyages in the coming season are to be conducted from Ushuaia, Argentina.

Prices quoted for the 2001-02 season range from $US6,015 to $US14,405 for the 13-14 day Peninsula-only voyages, to $US8,129 to $US25,285 for the 21-21 day Scotia Arc voyages. This compares with prices quoted for the 2000-01 season of $US4,430 to $US10,990 for a 13-day Peninsula-only voyage to $US6,580 to $US18,850 for a twenty-day Scotia Arc voyage on the old 'World Discoverer'.

Society Expeditions was founded in the U.S. in 1974 by T.C. Schwartz as the 'Society for the Preservation of Archaeological Monuments' to escort five small groups to Easter Island in the South Pacific in 1975 with profits from that venture being donated to assist the restoration of some of the island's famous giant stone statues. The original 'World Discoverer', which was built in 1974, was first chartered by the company in 1980, while a second vessel, 'Society Explorer' operated from 1984-1991, both ships being owned by the then West German company Discoverer Reederei. Schwartz sold Society to Discoverer Reederei's owner Heiko Klein in 1987, the German renaming the firm Society Expedition Cruises. Today the company has offices in Bremen, Germany and Seattle in the U.S.

Details of the Society's new acquisition, including images and general layout, are available on Society's web site at: http://www.societyexpeditions.com.

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The 'Ultimate Walk to Cure Diabetes' expedition which announced in late February that it was proposing to man-haul the 1,000 km between Hercules Inlet in Ellsworth Land and the South Geographic Pole (SGP) late this year, last week postponed the venture until the austral summer of 2002-03. While the planned trek is along a well-known route, the fact that one of those involved requires regular doses of insulin to survive means that great care will have to be taken to prevent the medicine from freezing otherwise the trekker's life could be endangered.

Will Cross from the U.K. and Jerry Petersen from the U.S. are proposing to make the trek in order to raise money for research into Type 1 diabetes as well as raise awareness of the disease. Type 1 diabetes strikes children suddenly, makes them insulin dependent for life, and carries the constant threat of serious complications. Organisers say they decided to postpone the venture for a year because they believe they can achieve their fund raising aims "more effectively by going in 2002".

Expedition Leader Cross, who is a Type 1 diabetic, completed a 'last degree' trek to the North Geographic Pole (NGP) on 20 April and prior to that has climbed Mount Blanc and the Matterhorn in Europe, trekked in Patagonia, north-west Africa, the Sahara Desert and remote areas of India. Cross' NGP trek is described on the expedition web site as "merely a training expedition" for the SGP venture. Petersen, who was also on the trek to the NGP is not diabetic, however, his father was and he died of complications related to the disease. Petersen's previous expedition experience includes ascents of Mount Aconcagua in South America, Denali in Alaska, and Kilaminjaro in Africa .

During his relatively short journey to the NGP, Cross tested his blood sugar constantly and took up to four shots of insulin a day. Both the U.K. and U.S. Pharmacopoeia recommend that insulin preparations be stored in a refrigerator at between 2° and 8° C, protected from light, and not be allowed to freeze otherwise it becomes useless. Cross solved that problem during his recent trek by keeping the medicine next to his body, and believes that, although the SGP trek will be much longer and colder, he has sufficient margin to undertake that journey safely. Cross believes that he could survive between three and five days if the insulin becomes unuseable.

The venture's plans call for Cross and Petersen to be flown by tour company Adventure Network International (ANI) from Punta Arenas, Chile, to its field camp Patriot Hills summer field camp in Ellsworth Land early in November 2002, then from there to the starting point of the trek at Hercules Inlet fifty kilometres to the north-east. Organisers expect the total journey to take around sixty days, therefore they could reach the Pole sometime around New Year 2002. ANI will be contracted to provide search and rescue support during the journey and to return the men from the Pole at the completion of their trek.

Two air-supported depots are scheduled to be established along the route to the Pole, the first just north of the Thiel Mountains and the second at Latitude 88° where Cross' father, Mike senior, who is also a diabetic, and Bret Goodpastor are to join the main pair for the last 120 km of the journey. Goodpastor, a physician who conducts research into diabetes, proposes to undertake a series of physiological tests on expedition members, particularly the diabetics, to try and assess how insulin requirements "change during physical activity in an extreme environment".

The expedition's web site says that it will use satellite phones to provide links to the outside world via the Internet. The satellite phone company Iridium, one of the expedition's sponsors, has promised similar support in 2002-03 to the support it provided to the recent NGP expedition.

Patron of the expedition is Alexandra Shackleton, Sir Ernest's grand daughter, who filled a similar role for the recently completed Shackleton Memorial Expedition which followed the route of the famous explorer's 1916 crossing of South Georgia last March (ANAN-46/05, 9 May 2001). Monies raised are to go to the Juvenile Diabetic Research Foundation in the U.S. as well as Diabetes U.K.

Further details of the Ultimate Walk to Cure Diabetes Expedition are available on their web site at http://www.curewalk.com/.

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Tourist overflights of the Antarctic Peninsula region that have been operated from Punta Arenas, Chile, for many years as 'day excursions' for passengers on large cruise ships, appear likely to continue in 2001-02 according to information posted last week on the Celebrity Cruises' and other cruise company web sites. While the Celebrity site has only brief details about the flights it does provide some information about them that have not been readily available until now (ANAN-39/05, 17 January 2001).

'Flightseeing' over the Peninsula is one of a number of shore excursions being offered at Punta Arenas. According to Celebrity, which like a number of other large shipping companies operates cruises around the coasts of Argentina and Chile (see ANAN-47/01 preceding), the flights last a total of four hours, although just thirty minutes of that time is actually spent over the Peninsula and nearby islands. Given the distance and time involved this suggests that the flights, which normally use Boeing 737 aircraft, may be limited to flightseeing in the northern part of the Peninsula over the islands and coasts in the Bransfield Strait region.

The information provided on Celebrity's site also says that the aircraft fly at around 10,000 m for most of the journey, although they descend to between 300 and 600 m over the Peninsula area for viewing; the latter heights being confirmed by a number of observers on the ground in the past. This is significantly lower than East Antarctic tourist overflight operations which are not permitted at any time to fly lower than 600 m above the highest terrain within 150 km of the aircraft's position (ANAN-7/04, 27 October 1999).

According to Celebrity the flights next season will cost $US1,295 per person. That amount includes lunch, an open bar and snacks. Guides on board provide commentary and answer questions on the region.

Celebrity is now offering 'on line' booking of shore excursions, including the overflights. Once their clients have purchased a cruise they can use their booking number to reserve seats on excursions via the internet. It is not known, however, whether seats are available to, or can be booked by, visitors to Punta Arenas who are not cruise ship passengers.

Few details are publicly available about the Peninsula overflights. While the operators are not members of the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO), that body has provided some information on the overflights in its tourism activity reports to the last two Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings. No other source of information on the flights is known at this stage and details of flight dates, routes used, or operational and other parameters that are set for air crews, do not appear to be widely available.

Celebrity's notice about the flights can be viewed in the 'Shore Excursions' section of their web site at: http://www.celebritycruises.com/asp/default.asp

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The proposed 'Together Alone' yacht race which was to cross sub-Antarctic waters during 2001-02 was cancelled last week due to lack of support, only six months before it was due to commence. The proposed 35,000 km circumnavigation was due to start from Hobart, Australia, in November, rounding Cape Horn and calling at Punta Del Este in Uruguay, then via the equator to Cape Town with the finish back in Hobart in April 2002 (ANAN-21/01, 10 May 2000).

The race was to have been made up of three classes: Single-handed Class 1 sailors were to race in identical International Open One Design 50 (IOOD-50) yachts, two-handed sailors made up Class II, and paying crew volunteers signed on to race up to five 'McIntyre 55' one design yachts in Class III.

Organiser Don McIntyre the principal of Australian company McIntyre Marine Services Pty Ltd (MMS) said last week that "Late last year we had virtually filled four McIntyre 55 yachts in Class III and three IOOD 50's were sold for Class 1. ...then as we moved closer to the event, personal, business and financial pressures caused some competitors to withdraw, creating difficulties for race management to quantify the event for sponsors and media groups wishing to sign on." In the end, the number of entrants was not enough to sustain the infrastructure costs or media and sponsor commitments.

MMS underwrote 'Together Alone' and had invested nearly $US500,000 to establish it and McIntyre Marine Composites, a new boat building facility to build the race yachts. Ocean Frontiers Pty. Ltd., which McIntyre also heads, was to have managed and promoted the event.

Ocean Frontiers operated two vessels, the 'Sir Hubert Wilkins' (ANAN-42/04, 28 February and ANAN-38/08, 3 January 2001) and the yacht 'Spirit of Sydney' in Antarctic waters in 2000-01. The company is planning further Antarctic operations with 'Sir Hubert Wilkins' in 2001-02, however, 'Spirit of Sydney', which required significant repairs after being damaged by ice last January (ANAN-42/07, 28 February 2001), is for sale.

Three IOOD50 competitors are now expected to contest Clipper Venture's 'Around Alone' starting in September 2002 and one of the Class III McIntyre 55 yachts is expected to undertake an expedition around the world via Cape Horn with stops at sub-Antarctic South Georgia and Isles Kerguelen. No details are currently available about this latter expedition.

Together Alone's web site is at: http://www.oceanfrontiers.com.au/togetheralone/

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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

27-30 June (Washington, D.C., United States)
IAATO year 2001 annual meeting.
Contact: iaato@iaato.org (Denise Landau)(invitation required).

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

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-48 to be issued on Wednesday, 6 June 2001
Deadline for items: Sunday, 3 June 2001 @ 2359 UTC. (send any items to tourism@aad.gov.au)