ANTARCTIC NON-GOVERNMENT ACTIVITY NEWS
Tourism Industry |
Brief news items on Antarctic and sub-Antarctic
non-government expedition activities.
ANAN 86
Wednesday, 20 November 2002
News in this edition:
86-01. Unserviceable 'Basler', delays in aircraft delivery, setback for inland ops.
86-02. Possible options for the regulation of tourism outlined.
86-03. COMNAP paper points to adventure tourism, future air ops issues, as key issues.
86-04. 9,300 'tourists' visited 21 national program stations in 2001-02.
86-05. Continued growth in tourist off-ship activities.
86-06. IAATO cuts forward visitor number estimates and emphasises uncertainties.
86-07. Whalers Bay retains 'most visited' status.
86-08. Second high-plateau marathon cancelled.
86-09. Long-distance SGP treks get underway.
86-10. Sentinel Range group commences its traverse.
86-11. Bike ride test for proposed 2003-04 SGP journey.
86-12. Further Antarctic ops planned for 'Tooluka'.
86-13. Solo trans-Antarctic flight proposed for late 2003.
86-14. 'Big ship' transits boost Ushuaia's Antarctic visitor numbers.
86-15. First 'Around Alone' sub-Antarctic leg delayed.
86-16. Whaling fleet heads for the Ross Sea.
86-17. Selection of 'wrong way around' skippers commences.
86-18. Seven summits attempt nears completion.
86-19. Crystal Symphony' lecturers named.
86-20. Antarctic port up-grades mooted.
86-21. Major media exposure for yacht race.
86-22. Adventurer now aims at Shackleton crossing.
UNSERVICEABLE BASLER, DELAYS IN AIRCRAFT DELIVERY, SETBACK FOR INLAND OPS
[ANAN-86/01]
US tour operator Adventure Network International's (ANI) chartered 'Basler 67' was damaged in a storm at the Patriot Hills in Ellsworth Land several weeks ago, and reports indicate that the aircraft may be unserviceable for some time. That incident, and delays in the delivery of smaller aircraft to ANI's Patriot Hills field camp, may hinder inland tourist and adventure activities in the lead up to the season's peak period late next month.
The Canadian-registered, ski and wheel-equipped 'Basler', which was first used in the Antarctic by ANI during the 1999-2000 season (ANAN-1/06, 4 August 1999), is owned by Canadian company Enterprise Air. It arrived at the Patriot Hills on 18 October after a two-day delivery flight from Punta Arenas, Chile, via the UK national program's Rothera station (ANAN-84/05, 23 October 2002).
Available reports suggest that its starboard undercarriage was damaged during a severe storm sometime in late October or early November. It is possible that despite normal tie-down precautions, the 15-tonne aircraft was shifted by strong winds. Such problems have been experienced by many Antarctic aviation groups in the past, and illustrate the difficulties fliers face in the region, even with today's technologies.
Following the storm the Basler's starboard wing, which is normally 2-3 m off the ground, ended up on the snow surface, while the port wing tip pointed skywards at an unusually high angle.
If the damage is limited to just the undercarriage itself, it may be possible to repair the aircraft sufficiently for flight operations within a few weeks, provided any spare parts required can be delivered quickly. It could be far more serious situation though, if structural elements in the wing have been compromised. ANI has not responded to queries put to it by ANAN about the condition of the aircraft.
Loss of the Basler has currently left ANI with a lone Twin Otter at the Patriot Hills with which to distribute tourists and adventurers about the surrounding region (ANAN-73/01, 22 May 2002). Pre-season planning also called for the company's Cessna 185 to be at the camp by early November to assist both the Basler and the Twin Otter with intra-continental flight operations, and contribute to mutual search-and-rescue (SAR) cover.
However, the 185 has not as yet arrived in Punta Arenas from Canada where it underwent its first major overhaul outside of Antarctica in more than a decade (ANAN-73/02, 22 May 2002). Several unconfirmed reports received by ANAN suggest that the 185 and a single-engine 'Otter', which is of similar size, are being sent south but that they have been delayed during transit down the Americas. ANI indicated in pre-season documentation that it would be using two Twin Otters (ANAN-84/05, 23 October 2002), and it is possible that the smaller 'Otter' is to be used this austral summer instead of the second Twin.
The reason for the late arrival of the two aircraft in southern Chile is unknown, although one report suggests that at least one of the aircraft could reach Punta Arenas in the next few days. The aircraft would still then have to make the 3,000-km, three-leg, flight to the Patriot Hills via Chile's Tenente Marsh airfield on King George Island and Rothera. That operation is very weather dependent and could take from a few days to a week or more to complete.
With only the Twin Otter available until potentially late in the month, long distant intra-continental flights in the region from the Patriot Hills could be compromised. Round-trip flights of 2,200 km to emperor penguin colonies in the Coates Land region, and to the South Geographic Pole, which are normally made or start in November, may not be possible unless another SAR option is available to ANI. Any prolonged delay with the arrival of the 185 and Otter could potentially also impact on: SAR cover for trekkers en route to the Pole; work in Dronning Maud Land; climbing activities on Vinson Massif; and fuel depot related activities.
Two Chilean Air Force (CAF) Twin Otters were expected to operate from the Patriot Hills from mid-November in support of Chilean national program operations. A Russia-based group is also possibly planning flying operations from there (ANAN-84/05, 23 October 2002). It is understood that the CAF aircraft have not yet arrived at the Patriot Hills, while if the Russian group does turn up, they will probably not do so until late December.
Despite ANI’s current difficulties, two groups who are attempting to ski to the South Geographic Pole (SGP) have been flown to their starting point at Hercules Inlet, 50 km to the east-north-east of the Patriot Hills (ANAN-86/09 following). The company also deployed the four-man Sentinel Range traverse party on the Newcomer Glacier 250 km to the north (ANAN-86/10 following).
SAR cover for the Hercules Inlet operation can, if necessary, be provided by ANI vehicles located at the Patriot Hills camp.
The 14 people involved the SGP treks and the Sentinel Range traverse, and other ANI clients, arrived in the Patriot Hills from Punta Arenas on ANI's first Ilyushin-76 (IL-76) inter-continental 'passenger' flight for the season on 10 November, an IL-76 'ANI staff only' flight, the first of the season, having preceded it four days earlier.
The season's third IL-76, and second ANI client flight, which was due to have been made on 12 November, was delayed until the 17 November by high winds at the Patriot Hills. A period of good weather over the last few days appears likely to allow ANI to catch up with its inter-continental flying program.
A number of options by which tourism in the Antarctic region could be managed in the future were outlined in a paper submitted to September's Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM-XXV) by the environmental group the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC). One of ASOC's suggestions is that a 'Convention for the Regulation of Antarctic Tourism' (CRAT) be developed by the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), although no details of its content and structure are provided in the paper.
In outlining its views in Information Paper XXV-IP-083 (ANAN-84/03, 23 October 2002), ASOC makes the comment that for much of the past decade, the Antarctic Treaty System has confined itself to discussions of "worthy technical issues", but what it calls the "fundamental questions about the wider implications of [the tourism] industry have not been posed". ASOC also called for changes to current management arrangements in an Information Paper it submitted to ATCM-XIV last year (ANAN-52/02, 1 August 2001).
ASOC's discusses five possible options for the regulation of tourism in its latest paper: no action; the development of additional guidelines; a new annex to the Madrid Protocol; an Antarctic Treaty Measure; and a new Convention (CRAT).
It argues that if "no action" is taken to improve the management of tourism, what it calls a "serious risk to the Antarctic environment" will result. It is also of the view that guidelines that have often been promulgated after agreement is reached within the ATS as ATCM 'Resolutions', "lack the legal weight to effectively regulate tourism".
While not fundamentally opposed to the development of a separate tourism Annex to the Madrid Protocol, an approach that was later rejected by ATCM-XXV (ANAN-84/01, 23 October 2002), ASOC suggested that the Protocol's environmental focus is too narrow given the wide spectrum of tourism policy issues. Similarly, use of an ATCM 'Measure' to manage tourism, which is a text that contains provisions intended to be legally binding once they have been approved by Treaty nations, would see "more far reaching use of [such a] mechanism than [has] hitherto" been the case.
ASOC says that if it used a 'Measure' in such a way, the ATS would be taking a "quite different" approach to tourism than it has to regulate other "emerging industries in Antarctica" such as sealing, fishing and mineral resource activities. In those situations ASOC says, "discrete activity-specific conventions" were negotiated, although the 'mining convention' never entered into force.
ASOC argues that a CRAT "would leave existing instruments untouched", but it would still require "the application of Protocol obligations", and that these would then "now operate downstream from more general guidance on the modalities of Antarctic tourism".
The views that ASOC put forward in Warsaw represent one end of what were a wide spectrum of philosophies that were aired at ATCM-XXV.
Those of the opposite view believe that existing arrangements for the management of tourism, including self-regulation, are adequate, provided arrangements that have already been put in place by the ATS are made to work effectively (ANAN-82/01, 25 September 2002).
The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO), for example, tabled an Information Paper at ATCM-XXV (XXV-IP-085) that listed several hundred agreements and national laws under which tourism activities are required to operate, although the need for a consistent and coordinated approach to management of non-government activities across the ATS was identified as a key requirement by an IAATO-organised meeting held in April this year (ANAN-82/01, 25 September 2002).
Despite that, ASOC criticised suggestions that what it calls "the growing tourism industry" can be managed by self-regulation. ASOC says that any challenge to that notion tends to "cause offence to the present industry, and stimulates its champions in [some] government agencies to rise to its defence". The environment group emphasised, however, that such questioning by it is "not a reflection on anyone [currently] involved in [the industry]", but rather is based on a number of key factors.
They claim, for example, that as the industry continues to diversify in Antarctica, the "viability of [the current] industry structure, which is now headed by IAATO, will be called into question as the tour body "faces difficulties whichever way it turns".
In an obvious reference to the opening up of IAATO's membership last year (ANAN-51/01, 18 July 2001), ASOC claims that if the Association had held on to its original "small-ship" type of membership, such that newer and larger operators could not join, it would have lost "influence and its importance" within the ATS. IAATO had been encouraged to adopt a more open approach in the lead-up to that decision (ANAN-25/01, 5 July 2000).
On the other hand, ASOC believes that by allowing, as it did, new operators to become members, IAATO was following the "usual [world] pattern" whereby "large conglomerates [can eventually] become the dominant players". The need to enter any association "could decline in the future" as a result, it says.
Antarctic tour operations were for many years conducted mainly by small-scale companies, but there has been a tendency in recent years for large companies to absorb smaller operators. IAATO indicated at ATCM-XXV though that it believes that the industry's current "small-ship" focus will remain (ANAN-86/06 following).
ASOC claims that what it calls "the cruel fact of the matter" is that experience elsewhere in the world is that its 'large company' scenario means that eventually "present Antarctic tourist operators will not be the determinants of the industry's future form, scale or direction". ASOC also argues that if Antarctic Treaty governments rely on self-regulation, they would be "ceding substantial control of a major human activity across some 10 per cent of the planet to commercial interests".
While rejecting its own 'no option' and 'additional guidelines' options as "entirely untenable", as they do not address the "need for regulation of Antarctic tourism", ASOC says that each of the other three options has strengths and weakness. The environment group says, however, that it has no clear preference for any of the three options "at this time", nor would it see "a combination" of those mechanisms as being an in-principle problem.
The Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs (COMNAP) suggests that adventure tourism and the "development of new and improved air links to Antarctica", are key issues that need to be considered by the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), according to an Information Paper it tabled at the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM-XXV) in September.
COMNAP's report (XXV-IP-027) on the "interaction between national [program] operators, tourists and tourism operators", was prepared in order to assist discussions on tourism at ATCM-XXV.
In its paper, COMNAP talks of the "high safety but low environmental risks" of adventure tourism. It points out that governments "do not usually have the legal powers to require adventurers to undertake contingency planning or carry insurance to reimburse search and rescue (SAR) costs". According to the paper, there are "some circumstances" in which national operators are not able to recover the "high costs" of SAR activities.
As a result, the paper suggests that systems that may be in use in other remote parts of the world to manage adventure groups should be examined to determine if they could be applied to the Antarctic scene. Greenland, for example, has "rules for insurance and bonds". Although not mentioned in COMNAP's paper, a 'logistics' evaluation system was also developed two years ago for activities on sub-Antarctic South Georgia (ANAN-36/07, 6 December 2000).
COMNAP also says in the Information Paper that "the development of new and improved air-links to Antarctica may open up opportunities that will attract more visitors to the continent". Its view is that national operators currently have little if any ability to manage such activities.
In a move that appears, by implication, to be directed at new air-based tourist operations that may commence in the future, COMNAP "notes" that it could develop a set of appropriate "universal requirements" that air transport operators "must meet" to qualify as contractors to national programs".
Despite its concerns, COMNAP stresses that the 'interactions' its members have with "the portion of the tourist industry represented by the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) function in a very satisfactory way". This is largely because, says the report, "COMNAP and IAATO make a great deal of effort to coordinate and exchange information with each other as [IAATO] prepares and plans for [its] Antarctic operations".
IAATO moved at its annual meeting last July, to distance itself from what it called the "inappropriate actions of some adventure groups" with which its members have no connection (ANAN-78/03, 31 July 2002). Another meeting organised by IAATO earlier this year called for the ATS to establish "binding measures" to regulate adventure tourism activities (ANAN-82/05, 25 September 2002).
COMNAP's 'interaction' paper also provides a general summary of operational issues that occurred between its members and the non-government sector during the 2001-02 austral summer (ANAN-86/04 following).
A total of 21 national program stations received visits by some 9,300 tourist during the 2001-02 austral summer, according to a paper tabled by the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs (COMNAP) at the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM-XXV) in September. The paper indicates that the 2001-02 season was generally free of incidents and that useful interaction continues to occur between COMNAP and the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO)( ANAN-86/03 preceding).
COMNAP's report, which was tabled as Information Paper XXV-IP-027, contained the results of a questionnaire sent to the managers of 24 national programs earlier this year, 23 of which conducted operations in Antarctica in 2001-02. The decision to conduct the survey was made at COMNAP-XIII in August last year (ANAN-56/02, 26 September 2001).
All except two national programs operating in the Antarctic Treaty area had had some 'contact' with tourists in 2001-02, contact being defined as "visits to stations, shared transportation, and radio contacts for weather reports".
Of the 21 nations who reported 'contact', 13 indicated that their stations had been visited by tourists or other non-government personnel. All up, according to the paper, 21 stations received visits by a total of 9,300 "tourists", almost all the facilities concerned being in the Antarctic Peninsula area. The most frequently visited station outside that region was the US-operated Amundsen-Scott facility at the South Geographic Pole.
While COMNAP's paper does not mention which stations were involved, data collected in 2001-02 by members of IAATO and collated by the US National Science Foundation (NSF), lists visits to 18 stations in that period.
According to the IAATO/NSF data, 14 of the stations listed as having visits were in the Peninsula area, one was in the South Orkney Islands (Orcades), another on the south-eastern shore of the Weddell Sea (Nuemeyer), while two were in the Ross Sea area (McMurdo and Terra Nova Bay).
The most visited Peninsula stations appear to have been: Chile's Gonzales Videla (11 visits / 3,758 visitors; Argentina's Ezperanza (12 / 1,323) and Admiralte Brown (14 / 1,249); US's Palmer (10 / 910) (ANAN-67/04, 27 February 2002); Poland's Arctowski (9 / 655); and Russia's Bellingshausen (7 / 640).
The discrepancy between the number of stations COMNAP and IAATO/NSF say were visited could, in part, be due to inconsistencies in the names used for shore visit locations in reports prepared by tour-ship leaders, although IAATO warned earlier this year that other factors are making it increasingly difficult for it to provide comprehensive data (ANAN-77/02, 17 July 2002).
COMNAP says that there were "no major emergencies [involving non-government activities] during the 2001-02 season". Two national operators assisted tourists with minor medical support, while another supported two air medivacs by providing landing facilities for aircraft (ANAN-68/02, 13 March 2002). A tourist vessel was also used to evacuate a national program expedition member "to South America for dental treatment".
The evacuation of a "stranded private expedition from [the SGP]" was described as a "special case" (ANAN-66/02, 13 February 2002). The assistance given to a yacht by Ukraine's Vernadsky station last February was not mentioned (ANAN-84/15, 23 October 2002).
According to the report, 16 of the 23 nations who operated in Antarctica last season used ships and aircraft that were conducting non-government operations to support aspects of their programs.
In most cases, the support provided was said by the paper to be "small" and involved moving scientific parties to and from sites of interest. Most of the arrangements appear, says COMNAP, to have been "ad hoc and based on flexible decision making, taking advantage of the situation on the spot". IAATO says in one of the papers it submitted to ATCM-XXV (IP-074) that its members provided support for "more than 100 scientists and other personnel".
COMNAP's paper says that for the flights from Cape Town to Dronning Maud Land, "there has been a closer combination of tourist and national operator logistics [in order] to take advantage of economies of scale" (ANAN-83/01, 9 October 2002).
The national operator's managers group says that it plans to continue with similar surveys in future seasons as it is important to monitor the issues involved over a longer period, and "also capture rare events such as emergency rescue operations".
The range, diversity and frequency of off-ship activities that are on offer to tourists visiting the Antarctic Peninsula region by ship are continuing to expand. While guidelines are being developed for some of the activities, their on-going growth and diversification in recent years have the potential, in the longer-term, to provide a challenge for land and marine management arrangements.
Historically, ship and yacht operations have provided their passengers with relatively brief, limited-area, shore visits to continental and off-shore island sites in the Peninsula area. That practice gave rise to various studies, monitoring programs, and publications on individual site characteristics (ANAN-60/08, 21 November 2001). It also led to animal behavioural studies (ANAN-83/05, 9 October 2002), and to initial consideration of the potential for long-term cumulative impacts at visitor sites (ANAN-82/03, 25 September 2002).
Over the last five years, however, as some companies work to develop an 'edge' in the market place, and adventurers seek new challenges, activities on offer have expanded to include more sophisticated pursuits, including longer walks that take participants several kilometres or more from the 'traditional' landing places, overnight camping, mountaineering, skiing, snowboarding, kayaking and scuba diving.
During the current austral summer a number of tour companies are again offering off-ship activities. The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) noted what it called the "visible trend" towards an increasing number of off-shore activities in its latest five-year activity forecast (ANAN-86/06 following).
On sub-Antarctic South Georgia, some 10 groups of people have, over the last three years, followed the route taken by Sir Ernest Shackleton and his companions across the island in 1916 (ANAN-61/07, 5 December 2001). In addition, almost 400 non-skilled hikers have, in recent seasons, gone ashore from tour ships to walk the last part of Shackleton's journey between Fortuna Bay and Stromness, a trip that takes most people around three-and-a-half hours. There is also pressure for more extended activities at places such as sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island.
Hikes beyond landing sites have been offered to ship-based tourists in the Antarctic Peninsula region for a number of years now. This is known to occur at the Aitcho Islands, on Deception Island between Baily Head and Whalers Bay (ANAN-66/04, 13 February 2002), and on Petermann Island, although there may also be other locations. While some indication of the number of people and routes taken is available for South Georgia, data from the Peninsula about such activities is less clear.
Australian companies Aurora Expeditions and Peregrine Adventures have between them advertised up to 15 opportunities for overnight camping during the current season. Aurora has been offering the camping option, which comes as part of a tourist's voyage ticket, for the past six seasons, while Peregrine commenced its program three years ago.
In conducting the operation, both companies use similar guidelines, camping on either snow or bare rock at least 200 m from the nearest wildlife, and only staying at any one site once during each austral summer. Both the evening meal and breakfast the next morning are taken on board, only sealed rations being taken shore for use in an emergency.
Aurora Expeditions and new Canadian firm Fathom Expeditions (ANAN-81/02, 11 September 2002) are offering climbers the opportunity to conduct day climbing activities of various technical difficulties within a few kilometres of the coast on several voyages in 2002-03. While those who participate in these activities spend long days ashore, they normally return to their ship each night.
Data available indicate that climbing activities took place at 14 sites during the 2001-02 season, most of them, like the overnight camps referred to earlier, being undertaken in the region between Charlotte Bay and the Argentine Islands, or Wiencke and Anvers Islands off the Peninsula coast. No data on climbing sites have been published for 1999-2000 or 2000-01, and information for 2001-02 is not yet available.
Plans by Peregrine Expeditions to offer 3- to 4-day 'off-ship' climbing program on Wiencke Island in 2002-03 add a new dimension to climbing activities (ANAN-77/08, 17 July 2002). If that program proves successful, a small number of other companies might also follow suit. Yacht-based climbing activities have increased considerably in recent years, and data collated by ANAN suggest that as many as 8-10 individual mountaineering programs could be conducted from them in 2002-03.
Information available suggests that four locations were used for camping in 1999-2000 and six in 2001-02. All the sites that are reported to have been used to date lie on the coast of the Peninsula or on islands in the area between Charlotte Bay in the north and the Argentine Islands in the south.
Kayaking programs are being offered from four ships in 2002-03, two from the 'Professor Multanovskiy' (US company Quark), one from 'Polar Pioneer' (Aurora), several from 'Endeavour' (Lindblad Expeditions of the US), and up to ten from 'Akademic Ioffe' (Peregrine).
At least five Peninsula voyages are expected to support scuba diving and snorkelling operations this season. US-based Quark Expeditions is offering opportunities on two voyages of the 'Professor Multanovskiy', Aurora Expeditions on one trip on the 'Polar Pioneer', and Netherlands-based Oceanwide Expeditions on two 'Grigory Mikheev' voyages. In addition, an 'undersea specialist' will make dives from the 'Endeavour' in support of that ship's educational program (ANAN-50/05, 4 July 2001).
In 2000-01, tourist dives are reported to have been made at five locations, in the South Shetlands at Half Moon Island, in Telephon Bay on Deception Island, at Damoy Point, Booth Island, and an undefined area in the Lemaire Channel. Although diving occurred in 1999-2000 (ANAN-8/08, 10 November 1999), and again in 2001-02, location data for both seasons are not available.
While reports indicate that the type of off-ship activities are each in themselves being conducted in a responsible and considered manner, and IAATO and its members are working to develop guidelines for some of the activities, at the present time companies who are conducting off-ship activities plan their activities independently, and there is no comprehensive coordinated approach taken to all land-use issues involved.
The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) has significantly reduced its estimate of the number of tourists it anticipates will visit Antarctica over the next five years. Both ship landing and cruise-ship sightseeing estimates for 2002-06 are forecast to be down 25-36 per cent or more on IAATO's predictions in 2001, although the outlook for air and overflight operations remains closer to that of last year.
IAATO's 2002 five-year estimates were contained in an Information Paper it provided to this year's Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM-XXV) in September (ATCM-XXV-IP-073)(ANAN-84/03, 23 October 2002).
While the tour operators' body has been able to provide quite accurate forward estimates in the past, in releasing its latest figures it emphasised the difficulties it now has in making forecasts given current uncertainties and potential fluctuations in the "world economy" and other factors (ANAN-77/02, 17 July 2002). The reasons why the numbers have been reduced so significantly were not, however, outlined in the paper.
The paper indicates that IAATO believes that Antarctic tourism will probably remain a relatively specialised and expensive niche destination offered mainly by a "small number of experienced small ship operators". Their focus, says IAATO, "will continue to be on educational voyages to areas of exceptional natural history and wilderness value". It also says though that there are what it calls "more visible" trends towards "diversification of activities from [those smaller] vessels" (ANAN-86/05 preceding).
In the five-year estimates it published last year, IAATO put the number of tourists who will make Antarctic landings during the 2002-03 austral summer at 19,000, however, this year's estimate puts that number at 13,964,which is about 27 per cent below the earlier estimate. The number of tourist 'landing' berths that are actually on offer in the Peninsula area alone is, however, in excess of 18,000, and voyage load levels will be the key to the final visitor numbers this season (ANAN-84/04, 23 October 2002).
Over the three-year period from 2003-06, revised predictions of landing visitor numbers are down between 27 and 32 per cent on 2001 estimates. Some 14,500 are shown for 2003-04 (originally 20,000), 15,000 in 2004-05 and again in 2005-06 (originally 21,000 and 22,000 respectively), while the figure for 2006-07 is put at 16,000.
The tour operators' association also says in the paper that it currently expects that large ships, which have been visiting Antarctica "on a regular basis since 1993", will continue to operate voyages to the Peninsula region. They will make "few if no landings" it says, the emphasis being on "scenic beauty aspects".
IAATO now estimates that around 2,700 tourists will visit Antarctica on the three "large ships" that are scheduled to visit in 2002-03 (ANAN-69/02, 27 March 2002), down 46 per cent on the figure of 5,000 provided last year. In the three seasons from 2003-06, estimates of the numbers of large-ship visitors are down a third to 4,000 in 2003-04 (6,000 originally), 4,500 in 2004-05 and 5,000 in 2005-06 (both down from 7,000), and 5,000 again in 2006-07.
While ship-based visitor estimates have fallen, "air and overflight" numbers are similar, although slightly lower, than last year's estimates. In 2002-03 the total number is estimated at 3,200 (down 20 per cent), and 4,500 in each of 2003-04 (unchanged), 2004-05 (down 10 per cent), and 2005-06 (down 18 per cent).
Australian company Croydon Travel's overflights of East Antarctica look like being reduced to three flights in 2002-03 (ANAN-79/04, 14 August 2002), and if so, their total client numbers for the season could fall by a third to a half of the figures for the last few years (ANAN-67/07, 27 February 2002).
US tour operator Adventure Network International is expecting to fly around 160 tourists and adventurers into Antarctica in 2002-03, almost exactly the same number that it reported carrying in 2001-02. ANI currently estimates that it will be flying close to 200 clients into Antarctica by 2006-07, an average annual increase of six per cent a year over the next five years.
IAATO says in the paper that it will continue to monitor developments in the tourism industry.
In 2001-02, Whalers Bay on Deception Island was the most visited tourist site in the Antarctic region for the second season running, according to information provided to the International Association of Antarctica Tourist Operators (IAATO) to this years Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM-XXV) in September. Changes in IAATO's 'top ten' over the last year reflect a number of operational problems experienced by tour operators in the Peninsula region last season.
The ten most visited tourist sites in 2001-02 were, as in previous years, again located in the Antarctic Peninsula region, two of them joining the top ten list this year.
A total of 6,972 tourists set foot at Whalers Bay during 76 ship landings; 5,854 (77) at Port Lockroy (ANAN-83/05, 9 October 2002); 5,317 at Half Moon Island (41 landings); 4,994 (47) at Pendulum Cove, Deception Island; 4,233 (51) at Cuverville Island; 3,758 (11) at Waterboat Point; 3,357 (38) at Paulet Island; 2,927 (37) at Hannah Point on Livingston Island; and 2,796 (22) at Jougla Point near Port Lockroy.
Paulet Island and Jougla Point were new additions to the top ten list, replacing Admiralte Brown station and Petermann Island, which fell to 18th and 31st positions respectively.
Visitor numbers at Petermann and Brown fell dramatically from those of the previous year, Brown's being1,249, a drop of 3,160, and Petermann's 721 which is down 4,092. Damage to the landing stage at Admiralte Brown during the 2001 austral winter may have affected potential visitor numbers there (ANAN-68/08, 13 March 2002), while unusually persistent ice conditions south of the Lemaire Channel obviously had an impact on visits at that location (ANAN-64/07, 16 January 2002).
Paulet Island visitor numbers almost doubled from the 1,905 recorded in 2000-01, while Jougla Point visitors actually fell by 200. The more significant falls at Petermann and Brown, however, kept Jougla Point in the top ten.
In the Ross Sea region, Cape Adare received the most tourists (455), followed by Cape Evans on Ross Island (402), Italy's Terra Nova station (269), Cape Hallett and Cape Royds (both 246), Cape Washington (201), and the US national program station on Ross Island (156).
Data collected by IAATO's member companies are collated by the US National Science Foundation (NSF), and provide important information on the location and development, over time, of ship-borne tourist visits to locations in coastal Antarctica (ANAN-23/02, 7 June 2000).
The second high-plateau marathon, which was scheduled to be run late next month in the vicinity of the South Geographic Pole (SGP), has been cancelled. No reason for the withdrawal of the event has been given by tour operator Adventure Network International (ANI).
When it announced plans for its first high-plateau marathon early last year, ANI said that logistics arrangements were such that potentially up to 75 competitors could have taken part in last January's run (ANAN-44/01, 11 April 2001). Five runners eventually took part in that event (ANAN-70/04, 10 April 2002). Subsequent arguments amongst some of the runners as to who actually won the full marathon have appeared in the public media this year.
The maximum number for this season's proposed $US25,000-per-person event is believed to have been set at 25, while the minimum required was put at just four. Changes in the date and route of this austral summer's event are believed to have been made by ANI last July (ANAN-79/10, 14 August 2002). The decision to cancel the event this year appears to have been made well prior to the emergence of the problems that the company is currently experiencing with its field-support aircraft (ANAN-86/01, preceding).
An ANI spokesperson told ANAN last week that the plateau event will be offered again in 2003-04, the intention apparently now being to "offer the Marathon every second year". Another US company, Global Expedition Adventures, is organising a marathon at the North Geographic Pole (NGP) next April (http://www.northpolemarathon.com). Brent Weigner, one of the runners in ANI's SGP event last January, is the NGP marathon's "co-race director".
Another US company, Marathon Tours, plans to run marathon and half marathon races on King George Island (KGI) on 2 March next year. This will be the sixth time that the company has conducted these events in the Antarctic Peninsula region since 1995, and the fifth time that they have been run on KGI (ANAN-73/05, 22 May 2002).
Three long-distance traverses to the South Geographic Pole (SGP) scheduled for the current austral summer got under way from Hercules Inlet on the coast of Ellsworth Land at different times over the last ten days, following a series of weather delays (ANAN-85-03, 6 November 2002). By 20 November two of the groups were some 70 km south of the Patriot Hills with just over 900 km left to trek to the Pole, while the third was about to commence its journey.
US tour company Adventure Network International's (ANI) six-person commercial 'Ski South Pole' party, which is being led by Canadian Matty McNair, and her partner Paul Landry's four-man group, both arrived at the Patriot Hills on ANI's chartered Ilyushin-76 (IL-76) from Punta Arenas, Chile, in the early hours of 10 November. That flight had been delayed for five days by bad weather.
The third group, 'Cure Walk' pair Will Cross and Jerry Petersen, arrived on the ice on 17 November, their IL-76 flight also being delayed by bad weather at the Patriot Hills (ANAN-86/01 preceding). They were preparing to set out from the Patriot Hills as this newsletter was published.
Reports indicate that within 24 hours of their arrival at the Patriot Hills camp, McNair and her five companions were flown by ANI's Twin Otter to Hercules Inlet at the edge of the Antarctic continent proper to start their trek.
They are understood to have arrived back at the Patriot Hills on 13 November, just over two days after they commenced their southward journey. After a short stay at ANI's field camp there, they headed south on 14 November and at last report were believed to be making 15-20 km per day in good conditions. By 20 November they had passed latitude 81 degrees south.
'The Poles' on-line news service (http://www.thepoles.com/publicnews/news.shtml) last week named ANI's four clients on the McNair-led traverse as Guillermo Bañales and Angél Navas from Spain, and Graham Stonehouse and Andrew Cooney from the UK. Another Canadian, Devon McDiarmid, is ANI's assistant guide on this trip (ANAN-85/03, 6 November 2002).
Landry's party of Andrew Gerber (South Africa) and Tom Avery and Patrick Woodhead (both UK) spent several days at ANI's Patriot Hills camp after their arrival there on 10 November to test out their equipment. They were eventually flown to Hercules Inlet, again by the Twin Otter, on the day McNair's party arrived back at the Patriot Hills field camp, and it is believed that they commenced their journey towards the Pole the next day. They appear to have made good progress for, by 20 November, they had also passed latitude 81, although they were marginally further north than McNair's group and some 15 km to the east-north-east.
While the three groups were on the ice, the 'Kites on Ice' party, which hopes to be flown in to the Patriot Hills and on to the SGP sometime around 21 December, were expected to be testing their vehicles on a glacier in Switzerland this week.
The web site for that venture, which is now fully operational, was last week changed to http://www.IceKites.com, a different address to that given previously by ANAN (ANAN-85/03, 6 November 2002).
Four Chilean adventurers who plan to climb three peaks in excess of 4,000 m during a traverse of the Sentinel Range in Ellsworth Land over the next two months were deployed at the start point of their trek on 10 November (ANAN-85/07, 6 November 2002). As ANAN was published the quartet was ascending its first major peak, 4,255m Mount Anderson.
The group was flown from Punta Arenas, Chile, to the Patriot Hills in Ellsworth Land and on to the Newcomer Glacier by US tour company Adventure Network International (ANI) in a single day.
The inter-continental flight, which had been delayed a week by bad weather at the Patriot Hills, was via Ilyushin-76 (ANAN-85/01 preceding), and the leg to the Newcomer was made by an ANI Twin Otter. During the latter flight, "possible air-rescue points in the Sentinel Range" were reconnoitred, according to the expedition's web site.
From the Newcomer Glacier the four planned to cross over to the Embree Glacier on the eastern side of Mount Schmid, and it is from there that the climb of Mount Anderson, was to be attempted (ANAN-85/07, 6 November 2002). If that route did not prove viable an alternative approach via the Ellen Glacier and up past Mounts Bentley and Press was to be tried.
The four men, Rodrigo Jordan, Eugenio Guzman, Ernesto Olivares and Pablo Guttierrez, are reporting their progress by satellite phone, but they also appear to have high frequency radio links with Punta Arenas and the Chilean national program station Eduardo Frei on King George Island, probably as a back-up.
ANI's standard practice is to require the field groups that it is supporting to report their position and condition daily. If no reports are received from a field party for 48 hours an air-based search operation is automatically initiated.
Prior to their departure from Santiago late last month, the four climbers were received by Chilean President Ricardo Lagos who wished them well.
They also gave a final press conference which was attended by the Director of the Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH), Ambassador Oscar Pinochet de la Barra. The 'Expedition Antarctica' web site lists INACH, Chile's National Institute for Sport, and the Department of Education as its three "sponsors" (http://www.antarcticaexpedition.cl/index.htm), although funding for the venture is also believed to be coming from the private sector in Chile.
BIKE RIDE TEST FOR PROPOSED 2003-04 SGP JOURNEY
[ANAN-86/11]
US adventurer Doug Stoup is understood to be planning to test his specially-engineered 'extreme terrain bike' on a 220-km round-trip journey from the Patriot Hills in Ellsworth Land in January. The ride, which is expected to take around 10 days, is designed both to test the bike and to help generate funds for a ride to the South Geographic Pole late next year (ANAN-79/08, 14 August 2002).
Stoup says on his web site (http://www.xstreamclimb.com/) that he intends to pedal from US tour operator Adventure Network International's (ANI) field camp at the Patriot Hills to the Pirrit Hills, 110 km to the south-west. He plans to "drag a sled" with field equipment and supplies behind the bike during the journey.
Broad-scale maps, which may not necessarily be accurate, suggest that the route planned is generally flat in elevation terms. However, the surface over which Stoup will ride is expected to be anything but smooth and sastrugi could be a major challenge.
After his bike ride, ANI will fly Stoup back to Punta Arenas, Chile. According to his web site he then plans to fly from there to King George Island to "board the [yacht] 'Pelagic' and sail to Anvers Island to climb and snow-board Mount Francais". The climber-skier has been involved in such operations in the Peninsula region in the past (ANAN-79/13, 14 August 2002).
Reports earlier this month indicated that 'Pelagic' is to leave Ushuaia, Argentina, on 15 December for a five-week ski-mountaineering trip whose primary goal is 2,760m Mount Francais, while a second sailing-climbing operation to the South Shetland Islands and South Georgia is planned to leave Ushuaia on 23 February (ANAN-85/06, 6 November 2002).
That schedule would probably provide 'Pelagic' with around a month between those voyages for a second visit to Anvers Island. Stoup says that he will be involved in the Francais operation from 1-14 February, which suggests that the yacht could leave Ushuaia around 26 January, although those details have yet to be confirmed.
An image of the $US4,760 bike Stoup plans to ride is currently available on his web site. Technical details of the two-wheeler are available on the manufacturer's site at: http://www.hanebrink.net/etb/index.html.
The 14.5 m yacht 'Tooluka', which has been used for commercial tour operations in the South Atlantic sector over the last three austral summers, has been purchased by Dutch yachtswoman Eef Willems. The steel sloop, which was acquired from Australian Roger Wallis in Cape Town earlier this year for an undisclosed sum, will continue to work in the Antarctic Peninsula and nearby areas for the foreseeable future.
Willems says that she first encountered 'Tooluka', which has a crew of two and can carry six passengers, in November 1999 at Grytviken, South Georgia, when she was skipper of the 25-m steel schooner 'Meander'. She subsequently saw 'Tooluka' on numerous occasions over the next few years as it provided support for a range of ventures in the Peninsula and South Georgia regions from 1999-2002 (ANAN-81/07, 11 September 2002).
Despite her purchase of 'Tooluka', Willems will only be able to spend a few weeks on it during the 2002-03 austral summer. She has prior commitments to work as expedition leader on the three-masted barque 'Europa' on its month-long trip to South Georgia, a voyage that is due to leave Stanley in the Falkland Islands on 28 November (ANAN-65/08, 30 January 2002). In February she is to return to that island again, as pilot of the yacht 'Shaman'.
As a result, 'Tooluka' is not expected to visit the Antarctic Peninsula or nearby areas in 2002-03, but Willems plans to operate it full-time there in 2003-04.
Willems has considerable sailing experience in the South Atlantic region. She first visited the Peninsula on the Falkland Islands-based yacht 'Damien II' in 1994-95 with the highly-experienced round-the-world and Antarctic yachtsman Jerome Poncet as a guest, and again in 1995-96, this time as Mate. In 1996-97 she was skipper of Poncet's replacement for 'Damien II', the 19.5-m steel schooner 'Golden Fleece' (ANAN-4/04, 15 September 1999), and then chief mate and pilot on the schooner 'Oosterschelde' in 1997-98 (ANAN-79/06, 14 August 2002).
As skipper of 'Meander' in the two seasons from 1998-2000, Willems visited South Georgia twice and the Peninsula region six times, all voyages being of four-weeks duration. She then worked as expedition leader on 'Europa' in 2001-02 (ANAN-30/01, 30 August 2000).
Further information about 'Tooluka' and its programs can be obtained on line at: http://www.tooluka.nl.
A UK-based pilot is hoping to cross Antarctica in a single-engine Piper Dakota aircraft as part of a planned around-the-world flight via both geographic poles. Polly Vacher, who says she has been planning the polar flight since 1998, is currently aiming to fly across the continent in November or December next year (ANAN-64/11, 16 January 2002).
The proposed world-circling polar flight, which was announced at a press conference in the UK on 8 November, will be Vacher's second around-the-world venture. Last year she travelled around the globe from west to east, taking just over 124 days for what was a 45,700-km, 47-leg journey through 17 nations. That operation raised the equivalent of $US320,000. The money was used to fund an annual scholarship for disabled people so that they can learn to fly.
According to Vacher, who has been flying for eight years, next year's operation aims to raise further funds for the scholarship, encourage disabled people to challenge themselves, and increase the general public's awareness of what disabled people can achieve.
Vacher, who is currently seeking financial support for the north-south flight, proposes to leave the UK in May next year in the same aircraft she used on the west-east flight. She plans to fly via Norway and the North Geographic Pole, then down the Americas to Punta Arenas, Chile, from where the Antarctic leg of her journey, which is to end in Christchurch, New Zealand, is to commence sometime in November 2003, weather depending.
A map and other information provided on the 'Wings Around the World II' web site (http://www.worldwings.org/index.htm), indicates that the 8,300-km route from Punta Arenas to Christchurch will be via the UK national program station Rothera in the south-west of the Antarctic Peninsula, the Patriot Hills in Ellsworth Land, the South Geographic Pole (SGP), and Ross Island in Victoria Land. The aircraft will not land at the SGP but will overfly the US national program station there.
Vacher told ANAN in a telephone interview last week that US-based tour operator Adventure Network International (ANI) has agreed to provide fuel and accommodation at its field camp in the Patriot Hills. She would not discuss publicly though what arrangements will apply at Ross Island other than to indicate that all necessary support "has been agreed to".
The US national program operates air facilities close to its McMurdo station on Ross Island and the New Zealand national program’s Scott Base is also located there. In addition, ANI has used tour ships to deploy aircraft fuel in the Ross Island area for non-government operations in the past, and it is also capable of flying fuel there from the Patriot Hills, although the latter exercise would take time and be a very expensive operation. ANAN has not been able confirm, however, that ANI will be providing the fuel and other support needed.
The Piper Dakota was fitted with an auxiliary fuel tank for last year's west-east flight. The aircraft, which can only land on wheels and therefore needs blue-ice or a prepared snow runway on which to land, normally flies at an air speed close to 130 knots and cruises at around 3,000 m, depending on conditions. Its ceiling is believed to be just over 5,000 m.
Given the poor weather conditions that often prevail on the trans-Antarctic route planned, the overall journey from Punta Arenas to Christchurch could take several weeks. Even though Vacher has a full instrument rating, she, like other pilots in Antarctica, potentially faces long waits for suitable weather between each leg. As a result, she was reluctant to provide any more than a general idea of the timing that will be involved.
Weather briefings for the flight are to be provided by the forecasting arm of the US-based Jeppesen Company, one of her sponsors. An Iridium satellite telephone is to be used for communications during the journey and weather and other information will be relayed to her via that system, although only the voice mode is to be used.
Depending on winds at flight level on the days involved, potential timing for the 1,375-km leg from Punta Arenas to Rothera is estimated by ANAN to be around 7 hours; the 1,260-km to the Patriot Hills, 6 hours; the 2,360-km to Ross Island, 11 hours; and the 3,300-km from there to Christchurch around 16 hours. Such a timing profile suggests that even if she has a clear run with weather, as a solo pilot she may, at minimum, have to 'overnight' at both the Patriot Hills and on Ross Island.
While long, the Ross Island to Christchurch leg is slightly less than the longest segment of the west-east flight last year, it being the 3,600-km sector between the Hawaiian Islands and the south-western coast of the continental US. Vacher says that her fuel reserves were such that when she landed at the end of that leg she still had three hours of fuel left in her tanks.
As the proposed around-the-world journey involves long flights over ocean and remote continental areas, an assortment of emergency and survival equipment is to be carried on the aircraft.
Vacher recently undertook survival training in the European Alps and Alaska but she declined to outline at this stage what search-and-rescue arrangements will apply for the trans-continental journey and the two long ocean legs of the Antarctic flight; the Drake Passage and the Southern Ocean south of New Zealand.
After arriving in New Zealand, the flight back to the UK is expected to be via the east coast of Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, India, the Middle East, Cyprus, Greece, Italy and France. Arrival back in the UK is put at sometime in January or February 2004, overall timing being dictated by conditions experienced en route.
The number of Antarctic tourists who left from or arrived back at Ushuaia, Argentina, during the 2001-02 austral summer fell to the lowest level in three years, according to data contained in an Information Paper tabled at September's Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM-XXV). Overall, however, Antarctic-related visitor numbers to the port were boosted by two transit visits by US-based Holland America's large cruise ship the 'Ryndam'.
Analysis of the paper (XXV-IP-090), which was prepared by Argentina's Tourism Board of Terra Del Fuego (INFUETUR), indicates that 9,253 tourists left the port on 93 Antarctic tour ship voyages; 9,083 returned there on 91 voyages; and 2,029 passed through on the 'Ryndam'. ANAN's pre-season forecast last year had put the departure-arrival numbers at between 9,000 and 9,500 passengers on just over 90 voyages (ANAN-58/03, 7 November 2001).
INFUETUR data indicated that 11,489 passengers involved in a total of 106 Antarctic voyages passed through the port in 2000
-01; 12,967 passengers on 120 journeys in 1999-2000; and 9,139 passengers on 93 voyages in 1998-99 (ANAN-51/06, 18 July 2001). The paper also says that 'Ryndam' was the first 'Antarctic' tour vessel in six years to transit Ushuaia during a voyage.
Despite the fall in numbers last season, Ushuaia is in no danger of losing its status as Antarctica's busiest gateway. Overall capacity on voyages advertised as departing from there in 2002-03 is close to 13,000, and it seems probable that around 11,500 people will pass through there on the way to and from Antarctica. That number could be swelled by close to 3,000 'day' passengers who transit on the three large cruise-ships that are scheduled to visit the Peninsula region (ANAN-80/04, 28 August 2002).
While Ushuaia’s Antarctic-related visitors fell, the port was also visited by a quite a few large cruise-ships in 2001-02 that were conducting voyages between locations such as Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Valparaiso, Chile (ANAN-5/02, 29 September 1999).
The start of the first sub-Antarctic leg of this year's 'Around Alone' yacht race has been delayed for two weeks after particularly bad weather slowed most of the fleet as they headed down the Atlantic Ocean towards Cape Town, South Africa, earlier this month. The thirteen-yacht fleet is now set to leave Cape Town on 14 December and could be in sub-Antarctic waters around 22-25 December. The first boat should now arrive at Tauranga, New Zealand, around 11 January after a month-long voyage across sub-Antarctic waters. Departure from New Zealand has now slipped to 2 February and the boats should start passing Cape Horn on the way to Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, in early March, several weeks later than initially anticipated (ANAN-81/08, 11 September 2002).
Five whaling vessels left Japan on 8 November with the aim of catching up to 440 Minke whales in the Ross Sea region between now and early March. The ships are believed to be the same ones that have operated in Antarctic waters over the last few austral summers (ANAN-62/02, 19 December 2001). The international environment group 'Greenpeace' has tracked the fleet several times in recent years (ANAN-64/05, 16 January 2002), however it is not known if it proposes to do so again this season. 'Greenpeace' prepares environmental impact assessments for its Antarctic operations but usually asks that its plans be kept under wraps until it finds the whaling fleet. The organisation has two vessels, both of which have heli-decks, that are capable of working in Antarctic waters. Their vessels are the 50-m 'Arctic Sunrise' and the newly acquired and recently refurbished 72-m 'Esperanza'.
SELECTION OF 'WRONG WAY AROUND' SKIPPERS COMMENCES
[ANAN-86/17]
The search has begun for men and women who will skipper the dozen identical 24-m yachts of the 2004-05 'Global Challenge' 'wrong-way' around-the-world yacht race. During the 10-month event, the fleet will spend most of its time heading west into the prevailing winds in sub-Antarctic waters (ANAN-30/04, 13 September 2000). The skippers who are eventually selected will each be responsible for a boat and 17 volunteer crew members. Nearly 200 prospective yachtsmen and women from many nations applied for the 12 positions in the last 'wrong-way-around' event in 2000-01. Skippers for the race in two years time will be chosen late in 2003 after what are described as being an "increasingly difficult" series of evaluations over the next 12 months. The race itself is due to get under way from the UK in September 2004.
Korean mountaineer Park Young-suk hopes to climb Vinson Massif, Antarctica's highest mountain, sometime in the next week, thus fulfilling his aim of climbing the highest peak on every continent; the so-called 'seven summits'. The climber is being supported in Antarctica by US tour company Adventure Network International. At least 72 people have climbed the seven summits to date (http://everestnews.com/seven), while over 600 have now reached the summit of Vinson Massif (ANAN-19/06, 12 April 2000). Up to 80 other climbers could also reach the top of Vinson during the current austral summer (ANAN-84/05, 23 October 2002).
Crystal Cruise Lines has named the team of lecturers who are to accompany the 940-passanger 'Crystal Symphony' on its first visit to the Antarctic Peninsula next February (ANAN-69/02, 27 March 2002). They are: Dr Harm de Blij, who worked as 'geography editor' on the 'Good Morning America' television program in the US for seven years; US ornithologist Bill Toone of the Zoological Society of San Diego; New Zealander Dr Peter Carey, a zoologist who has extensive Antarctic experience; and Carey's countryman, Malcolm Macfarlane, who has also visited the continent on many occasions.
News reports indicate that the multi-national consulting firm Deloitte and Touche Tomastsu and the Argentine company Torcello y Cía are examining a proposal to build cruise-ship terminals in twenty cities on three continents. Included on the list are the Argentine ports of Buenos Aires, Puerto Madryn and Ushuaia, although no details of what is proposed at each have been released, and there is no guarantee at this stage that the project will actually proceed. Ushuaia is the world's busiest Antarctic gateway (ANAN-86/14 preceding), and both its port facilities and the nearby airport were up-graded significantly in 1998 (ANAN-5/02, 29 September 1999). A $US36 up-grade of facilities for tour ships at another gateway port, Punta Arenas in Chile, was announced last August (ANAN-79/01, 14 August 2002).
The 2001-02 'Volvo' around-the-world ocean race, which featured long passages through sub-Antarctic waters earlier this year (ANAN-65/05, 14 February 2002), obtained significant media exposure in many parts of the world according to the event's organisers. They estimate that around 150 million people were exposed to news coverage, and weekly and monthly programs on the race on television. The print media in the 11 nations that were monitored reportedly produced over 15,000 stories that had a potential total audience of 640 million people. The race's web site was accessed by over three million individuals who made a total of 18 million visits and some 100 million page views. Organisers of the 'Antarctica Cup' yacht race, which is currently scheduled for 2004-05, the same season as the next 'Global Challenge' event (ANAN-86/17 preceding), have been stressing to prospective sponsors the potentially huge global television audience that their race could attract (ANAN-79/11, 14 August 2002).
Adventurer Liv Arnesen (ANAN-64/09, 16 January 2002) is planning to cross South Georgia, over the next few weeks, via Sir Ernest Shackleton's famous 1916 route (ANAN-61/07, 5 December 2001). Arnesen left Stanley in the Falkland Islands on 18 November 'by sail boat' according to the web site with which she is associated (http://www.yourexpedition.com). No details of the craft she is travelling on are available at this time, however, it appears that up to half-a-dozen others may take part in the crossing attempt. The German company Halpag Lloyd's tour ship the 'Bremen' left South Georgia on the same day as Arnesen and her group, and it, US company Lindblad's tour-ship 'Endeavour', and Dutch company Oceanwide's 'Grigory Mikheev', are scheduled to be conducting tour operations at the island during the time the crossing attempt could be made.
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 2003
3 March (King George Island, Antarctica)
Sixth Antarctic Marathon and Half Marathon (see ANAN-68/09, 13 March 2002).
Contact: marathon@shore.net (Thom Gilligan).
5-8 May (Seattle, United States).
IAATO annual meeting.
Contact: iaato@iaato.org (Denise Landau)(invitation required).
9-20 June (Madrid, Spain)
Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting XXVI.
8-11 July (Brest, France)
COMNAP XV (including the sub-committee on Tourism and Non-Government Operations).
Contact: jsayers@comnap.aq (Jack Sayers).
18-20 September 2003 (Cambridge, U.K.)
Conference on the future of South Georgia (see ANAN-77/07, 17 July 2002).
Contact: David.Rootes@polesapart.org or rwburton@ntlworld.com.
24 November (Queen Mary and Dronning Maud Land regions).
Total solar eclipse (See ANAN-79/09, 14 August 2002).
YEAR 2004
Sometime around mid-year [Dates to be set] (Christchurch, New Zealand).
IAATO annual meeting.
Contact: iaato@iaato.org (Denise Landau)(invitation required).
November-March 2005 (Single-handed Around-the-world via the Southern Ocean)
Vendee Globe 2004 Yacht Race (see ANAN-79/11, 14 August 2002).
November-March 2005 ('Wrong way around' yacht race via the Southern Ocean)
BT Global Challenge Yacht Race.
December-February 2005 (Circumnavigation of Antarctica).
Antarctica Cup yacht race (see ANAN-79/11, 14 August 2002).
YEAR 2005
November-March 2006 (Around-the-world via the Southern Ocean)
Volvo Ocean Yacht Race.
Next edition issued on Wednesday, 4 December 2002 @ 0600 UTC.
Deadline for items: Sunday, 1 December 2002 @ 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:
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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 7050
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© Commonwealth of Australia 2002
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