ANTARCTIC NON-GOVERNMENT ACTIVITY NEWS
Tourism Industry |
Brief news items on Antarctic and sub-Antarctic
non-government expedition activities.
ANAN 69
Wednesday, 27 March 2002
News in this edition:
69-01. IAATO proposes 'intersessional' meeting on tourism.
69-02. Fourth 'Category 3' vessel plans Peninsula visit in 2002-03.
69-03. CCI part of major world transportation company.
69-04. 'Jules Verne' contender kept well north, progress slowed.
69-05. Deception Island survey group returns from field work.
69-06. Around-the-world polar flight now listed for early 2003.
69-07. Penguin behaviour video "well received" by tourists.
69-08. Coming Events Relevant to Non-Government Activities.
IAATO PROPOSES 'INTERSESSIONAL' MEETING ON TOURISM
[ANAN-69/01]
The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) has invited its members, and a number of Antarctic Treaty Parties and other organisations that have an interest in Antarctic tourism, to an "Intersessional Meeting on Antarctic Tourism" to be held on 29-30 April in Aspen, Colorado as part of preparations for next September's Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM-XXV).
Treaty Parties agreed at ATCM-XXIV last July that "there is an increase in the diversity of tourism activities [in Antarctica] which may present new management challenges" for the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS). As a result, "detailed discussions" on Antarctic tourism were to be listed on the agenda for ATCM-XXV (ANAN-52/01, 1 August 2001), and IAATO says that its proposed intersessional meeting is aimed at providing September's ten-day gathering with "the basis for more effective and objective discussions".
In putting forward its proposal two weeks ago, IAATO suggested that the intersessional meeting should be used to: identify issues and concerns that might exist about Antarctic tourism; examine relevant regulatory arrangements that are currently in place; and identify mechanisms that might be needed "to plug any current gaps in the system". IAATO envisages that the meeting could "provide to ATCM-XXV a series of recommendations on how to realistically address tourism issues, and if needed regulatory mechanisms", that may need to be developed by the ATS.
Points initially listed for consideration next month include: current and possible future tourist activities; trends and potential financial implications; adventure tourism; impacts on the operations of national program stations; search and rescue; self-sufficiency; insurance; IAATO and non-IAATO operators; Antarctic shipping guidelines; existing relevant domestic and international legislation and regulation; IAATO's self-regulation approach; existing management mechanisms and their appropriateness; and gaps in current management arrangements and possible remedies.
IAATO attends ATCMs as an 'invited expert'. As such, its representatives are able to both give advice and to put forward the industry's point of view on tourist issues at each ATCM. The tourist body is also often invited to attend other relevant meetings held under ATS auspices, and sometimes to take part in ATS-organised work that is of direct relevance to IAATO members and their activities (ANAN-66/04, 13 February 2002).
Other currently known discussions on tourist activities in Antarctica that are scheduled in the period between now and ATCM-XXV include IAATO's year 2002 annual meeting in Cambridge, UK, from 1-5 July, and the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs' (COMNAP) sub-committee on Tourism and Non-Government Operations (TANGO) at COMNAP-XIV in Shanghai, China, from 15-19 July.
ATCM-XXV is scheduled for 10-20 September in Warsaw, Poland, its start being one week later than that previously announced.
The 940-passenger capacity cruise liner 'Crystal Symphony' is to conduct a single, two-day, 'no-landing' voyage to the Antarctic Peninsula region next February. The visit, which was announced by the ship's operators Crystal Cruise Inc. (CCI) on 7 March, brings to four the number of large 500-plus (IAATO-Category 3) passenger vessels that are scheduled to operate in Peninsula waters during the 2002-03 austral summer (ANAN-67/01, 27 February 2002).
Crystal Symphony's Peninsula visit is only a small part of what is listed on the itinerary for its 104-day, around-the-world voyage that is to start and end in Fort Lauderdale in the south-east United States.
The ship is to leave there on 19 January and will visit ports along the east coast of South America and Stanley in the Falkland Islands before arriving off the South Shetland Islands on 15 February. CCI's web site indicates that she will "cruise" King George and Deception Islands on that day, and the Neumayer Channel and Paradise Bay the day after, before heading for Ushuaia, Argentina, where she is due on 18 February.
Plans for the two-day visit, which is a first by the ship or company to Antarctic waters (see ANAN-69/03 following), have not yet been developed in detail. A spokesperson for CCI told ANAN last week that they did not known if the Peninsula visit has yet been discussed with either US government agencies or the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators, or if the company planned to join the tour operator Association prior to next year's voyage.
'Crystal Symphony' was constructed by Kvaerner Masa in Turku, Finland at a cost of $US250m and entered service with CCI in 1995. Registered in the Bahamas, she is of 51,044 Gross Registered Tonnes, is 238 m long, 30 m wide, has a draft of 7.6 m, and a normal service speed of 22 knots. In addition to her 940 passengers, a crew of 545 operates the ship, the Captain being Norwegian, its officers Norwegian and Japanese, and hotel and dining staff European; a mixed international crew provides other support.
The three other large passenger vessels that are to visit Peninsula waters in 2002-03 are also operated by US-based companies. Holland America Line's 'Amsterdam' and 'Ryndam' are to visit between 30 January and 4 February (ANAN-67/01, 27 February 2002), while Orient Line's 'Marco Polo' is to operate there between early January and mid-February (ANAN-63/01, 2 January 2002). 'Amsterdam' and 'Crystal Symphony' are identical in length and are the longest of the four ships; in terms of passenger capacity and gross tonnage the CCI ship ranks third overall.
Between them, the four ships are scheduled to make a total of eight Peninsula voyages that have a potential passenger capacity of over 6,000, although the actual number of tourists involved is more likely to be between 5000 and 5,500. Of those, only Marco Polo's anticipated 2,500 passengers will actually make landings in the Peninsula region (see ANAN-69/07 following).
Images of 'Crystal Symphony' and general details about CCI are available on line at: http://www.crystalcruises.com/.
Crystal Cruise Inc. (CCI), operators of the 'Crystal Symphony' that is to visit the Antarctic Peninsula region for the first time during the 2002-03 austral summer (see ANAN-69/02 preceding), is part of a major world-wide transportation company. CCI's head office is located in Los Angeles in the United States, however, the company is wholly owned by transport giant Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) whose headquarters are in Tokyo, Japan.
NYK currently operates over 800 vessels and is involved in a range of sea, land and air transportation and logistics services, and describes itself as "the largest and most integrated transportation company in the world". NYK was established in 1885 and during the early 20th Century operated a number of passenger liners, however, those services were discontinued in 1960. By the mid-1980s the company started to investigate the possibility of rejoining that trade, and CCI was eventually incorporated in the US in 1988 as a direct result, the aim being to eventually make NYK "a leader in the marine leisure industry".
CCI's first ship, the 'Crystal Harmony', which has the same passenger capacity as 'Crystal Symphony', was constructed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Nagasaki, Japan, and entered service in July 1990; 'Crystal Symphony' following in May 1995. In December 2000, CCI signed a contract with Chantiers de l'Atlantique in St. Nazaire, France for the building of a third ship, the 1,080-passenger 'Crystal Serenity', which is due to commence operations in the Mediterranean in July 2003.
According to CCI, its aim is to cater for "people with the freedom to travel and the disposable income to do it in style" by providing "refined luxury and a variety of innovative firsts that distinguishes [its ships] from [those of its] competitors". Features on board both its current vessels are listed as including "grand lounges, the largest luxury penthouses afloat, the highest stateroom and penthouse veranda ratio, a main dining room and alternative dinner restaurants at no additional cost, two swimming pools, movie theatres, satellite television services, a shopping arcade, a variety of lounges and entertainment areas, and a casino".
Next February's visit to the Peninsula by 'Crystal Symphony' is the first time CCI has operated a vessel in the Antarctic region. It is not known whether the company has plans for any of its ships to visit the Peninsula region again in subsequent southern summers, although many observers of Antarctic tourism are of the view that an increasing number of large vessels like 'Crystal Symphony' will make the journey there over the next few years.
Weather patterns in the South Atlantic and south-west Indian Oceans over the last week have kept 'Jules Verne' around-the-world trophy contender 'Orange' at a much lower latitude in the Southern Ocean than originally planned. That, and a four-day storm that began last weekend, have slowed the catamaran's progress, but despite that she is still on track to break the current 71-day record, although the long run to Cape Horn is still ahead of her.
On 26 March 'Orange' was some 600 km north of Kerguelen in the southern Indian Ocean, tracking generally eastwards along latitude 43 degrees south at 15-20 knots. The catamaran, which was then some 700 km further north than originally anticipated by the crew, had just ridden out a storm north-west of the Crozet Islands. That system reportedly produced south-west winds of up to 60 knots, and a very steep short swell: with waves breaking over both of Orange's cockpits the crew was forced, at times, to pull down all sail and 'heave to'.
Prior to that, as 'Orange' was heading south-east out of the Atlantic Ocean (ANAN-68/07, 13 March 2002), another less intense low pressure system which lay along latitude 45degrees south, south-west of Cape Town (South Africa), blocked their intended route into sub-Antarctic waters. As a result, the catamaran crossed the Greenwich meridian near latitude 39 degrees south. Despite this 'detour', it was able to pass the longitude of the Cape of Good Hope 18 days, 18 hours and 40 minutes after the start, a time that was some 23 hours faster than the time taken by the late Sir Peter Blake's 'ENZA' when it set the record in 1994.
After experiencing difficult conditions over the past seven days, weather patterns currently appear favourable for higher speeds in the week ahead as 'Orange' heads towards waters south of Australia and New Zealand.
The crew has indicated that over the next week they hope to edge towards latitudes 55-56 degrees south to try and find favourable winds as they and set out for the long haul to Cape Horn. While the shortest route to the Horn would involve a passage even further south, crew members are concerned about the increased risk of encountering icebergs or other ice in the water if they track too far south. Requests by ANAN to Orange's headquarters in France for details of any contingency plans that are in place for the South Pacific crossing have not yet been answered.
If the 37-m catamaran is able to average 20-25 knots as she heads east she could reach Cape Horn late in the first week of April. She needs to cross the finishing line at the south-western end of the English Channel by 12 May if she is to take the Jules Verne trophy.
While 'Orange' was approaching Australasian longitudes, the Bark 'Endeavour' reached the half-way mark of her sub-Antarctic passage from Bluff, New Zealand, to Cape Horn (ANAN-67/06, 27 February 2002). Since leaving Bluff on 10 March the vessel has been making around 6-7 knots, mostly under sail, in what appears to have generally been favourable conditions. If she is able to maintain her present rate of progress 'Endeavour' may reach the Horn around the same time as 'Orange'.
Meanwhile, Australian company Ocean Frontiers' yacht 'Arctos' left Cape Town, South Africa, on 21 March on the next leg of her five-month circumnavigation of Antarctica. She is currently expected to arrive at the Kerguelen Islands around 5 April, and after a week there may pass close to Heard Island, en route to Hobart, Australia, where she is expected in early May, a little later than originally anticipated (ANAN-68/06, 13 March 2002).
Personnel involved in an internationally coordinated project to develop a management plan for Deception Island completed their field work in late February. During their month-long visit to the island, the group undertook baseline surveys at Entrance Point, Fumarole Bay, Telefon Bay, Kendall Terrace, Pendulum Cove, Whalers Bay, South-East Point and Baily Head. The data collected are expected to play a key role in development of a management plan.
Of the fifteen people involved, twelve represented six Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties (Argentina, Chile, Norway, Spain, the UK and the US), while the others were from the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) and the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, both of which are non-government bodies. Eleven of the group were housed at Argentina's Decepción station at Fumarole Bay and the other four at Spain's nearby Gabriel de Castillia facility.
Transport to and from Deception Island was provided by a number of IAATO-member vessels, and the Argentine national program icebreaker 'Irizar'. Inflatable rubber boats were used to transport personnel around the island during their stay, although contrary to earlier reports, no field camps were established during the operation there (ANAN-66/04, 13 February 2002).
A report on the field program is expected to be tabled at this year's Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM-XXV) in Warsaw, Poland, in September.
US-based Concorde Spirit Tours (CST), which cancelled its planned November 2001 trans-Antarctic flight by a chartered jet passenger aircraft because of last September's attacks in the United States, is now hoping to conduct the flight early next year. CST announced earlier this month that it is aiming to fly sometime "between early January and early March 2003", although as yet no firm contract has been signed for an aircraft and seat reservations have not yet opened.
The proposed trans-Antarctic flight is part of an attempt by CST to set a new time for an around-the-world flight via both Geographic Poles. The company hopes to beat the current record (54 hours 7 minutes and 12 seconds), set in October 1977, by over three hours. The Antarctic leg of the journey is expected to involve what will be only the fourth commercially operated heavy jet-aircraft flight to overfly the South Geographic Pole (SGP) (ANAN-43/01, 28 February 2001).
Last November's planned flight was cancelled because it would have been "in bad taste to try to stage a gala world-record flight from [New York] just two months after the worst terrorist attack [on the US] in history", according to CST President Don Pevsner (ANAN-56/01, 26 September 2001). Pevsner told ANAN at that time that all but 20 seats on the flight had been sold and that it could have flown. This was a positive turn-around, for in July last year nearly 200 seats were still unsold, a situation that was apparently rectified by savage cuts to ticket prices (ANAN-52/04, 1 August 2001).
That flight was to have used a South African Airways (SAA) Boeing 747-400 for the record attempt. It was to have left New York in the north-eastern United States and flown from there to Rio Gallegos in southern Argentina, then over the SGP to Perth, Australia, to Beijing, China, and up over the North Geographic Pole (NGP) and back to New York.
CST said when it cancelled the flight last year that South African Airways would not be the carrier used for any future flight. Another change envisaged is that the aircraft will leave from and return to the former Olympic Games city of Atlanta in the east of the US, rather than New York.
The 10,900-km trans-Antarctic flight from Rio Gallegos to Perth, which is expected to take just under twelve and a half hours, is the second longest sector of the record attempt, the longest being the 11,700-km leg from Beijing to Atlanta over the NGP.
A 10-minute film that provides a guide on how humans can minimise disturbance when visiting breeding Adélie penguins has added to tourists "understanding", according to expedition staff who worked on the tour ship 'Marco Polo' this austral summer. The video which is titled 'Giving Penguins Their Space: Viewing breeding Adélie penguins without causing disturbance', summarises research on Adélie penguin behaviour conducted in the late 1990s by Dr Mellisa Giese for the Australian national program (ANAN-30/05, 30 August 2000).
Developed originally as a training tool for Australian program personnel, the video shows some of the behavioural and physiological effects humans can have if they approach nests of Adélies too closely or in an inappropriate manner. It also illustrates the way to recognise if breeding birds are being disturbed, suggests how visitors should conduct themselves around the penguins, and recommends a minimum approach distance of ten metres for breeding Adélies.
This season, for the first time, 'Marco Polo' staff showed the video as a visual aid to complement the compulsory briefing on 'how to behave in Antarctica' that is given to passengers prior to the first landing made on each of the ship's Antarctic voyages. One of the vessel's seven television channels was dedicated to the film in the lead-up to each initial deployment ashore, it being shown for most of the day in 'continuous loop' mode.
Reports from the ship, which is operated by US-based Orient Lines, indicate that the film was "very well received" and the claim was made that "passengers were a lot more understanding of the reasons [why they were] occasionally asked to step back or wait while a penguin made a leisurely crossing [near a] passenger's path". While praising the video's central message, however, staff emphasised to ANAN that "Marco Polo" follows the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) guidelines of a 5-m minimum approach distance to penguins, rather than the 10-m distance recommended for Adélies in the film.
'Marco Polo', which normally carries 450-550 passengers on its Antarctic voyages, carried close to 2,900 tourists on the six voyages it made to the north-west Antarctic Peninsula region in 2001-02. Each voyage spent four days in the area and passengers were able to make landings at Port Lockroy, Paradise Harbour, and Deception and Half Moon Islands in the South Shetlands. The ship follows IAATO By Laws in that it only allows 100 passengers to be on shore at any one time. Reports from a number of independent observers in the past indicate that each group is closely managed in order to minimise disturbance.
Orient Lines proposes to conduct five voyages with 'Marco Polo' to the Peninsula in 2002-03, one journey including a visit to South Georgia (ANAN-63/01, 2 January 2002).
Dr Martin Riddle, head of the Australian Antarctic program's human impacts research group, told ANAN last week that he and Dr Giese were "very pleased" that the research has been "applied in such a positive manner". They both emphasised, however, that there was still "much to be done" to understand how other Antarctic species react to humans and called for further international cooperation in behavioural studies. There is a range of views in the scientific community about the effect human visitors can have on animals and no internationally agreed standards for such interactions have yet been established.
The film is available on CD and can be obtained by contacting the Australian Antarctic Division at: tourism@aad.gov.au. The CD will run on both PC or MacIntosh computers provided they have a 4x CD-ROM, run at over 100 MHz, and have QuickTime Version 4 installed.
Dr Giese has also studied the effects of helicopter noise on emperor penguins (ANAN-5/05, 29 September 1999) and is currently supervising two PhD students who are researching the effects of human activity on Weddell seals and sub-Antarctic penguins.
Please forward notice of events via e-mail to: tourism@aad.gov.au. Up-dates are made to ANAN's web site at: http://www.antdiv.gov.au/goingsouth/tourism/Research/BibConf/Confer/default.asp as soon as new information comes to hand.
YEAR 2002
29-30 April (Aspen, Colorado, USA)
IAATO Inter sessional meeting on Antarctic tourism (see ANAN-69/01 preceding)
Contact: iaato@iaato.org (Denise Landau)(invitation required).
1-5 July (Cambridge, U.K.)
IAATO year 2002 annual meeting.
Contact: iaato@iaato.org (Denise Landau)(invitation required).
15-19 July (Shanghai, China)
COMNAP XIV (including the sub-committee on Tourism and Non-Government Operations).
Contact: jsayers@comnap.aq (Jack Sayers).
15-26 July (Shanghai, China).
XXVII SCAR (Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research).
9-20 September (Warsaw, Poland)
Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting XXV
YEAR 2003
4-11 January (South Geographic Pole)
High Plateau Marathon (ANAN-65/02, 30 January 2002).
Contact: general@adventure-network.com
3 March (King George Island, Antarctica)
Sixth Antarctic Marathon and Half Marathon (ANAN-68/09, 13 March 2002).
Contact: marathon@shore.net (Thom Gilligan).
July [Dates to be set] (Seattle, United States).
IAATO year 2003 annual meeting.
Contact: iaato@iaato.org (Denise Landau)(invitation required).
24 November (Queen Mary and Dronning Maud Land regions).
Total solar eclipse (See ANAN-61/09, 5 December 2001).
Next edition issued on Wednesday, 10 April 2002 @ 0600 UTC.
Deadline for items: Sunday, 7 April 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:
ANAN archive (including this issue with its built in links):
http://www.antdiv.gov.au/goingsouth/tourism/News/default.asp
Coming events related to non-governmental activity:
http://www.antdiv.gov.au/goingsouth/tourism/Research/BibConf/Confer/default.asp
Links to tourist industry web sites:
http://www.antdiv.gov.au/goingsouth/tourism/Industry/default.asp
EDITOR: Dave Moser (David.Moser@aad.gov.au).
POSTAL: Australian Antarctic Division, Kingston, Tasmania, Australia 7054
TELEPHONE: +61-3-6232-3347 (2200-0600 UTC).
FACSIMILE: +61-3-6232-3357.
RESEARCH/WRITING: Martin Betts (Martin.Betts@aad.gov.au)
TELEPHONE/FACSIMILE: +61-3-6267-4790 (2200-1100 UTC).
FACSIMILE: +61-3-6232-3500.
© Commonwealth of Australia 2002
All images, text and downloadable files in ANAN are copyright ©Commonwealth of Australia 2002 or respective authors where indicated. You may down load, display, print and reproduce this material in unaltered form only (retaining this notice) for your personal, non-commercial use or use within your organisation. Source credit must be given as follows: © 2002 Australian Antarctic Division, Kingston Tasmania 7050
Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, all other rights are reserved.
Requests for further authorisation should be directed to:
The Editor, ANAN
Antarctic Treaty and Government Section
Australian Antarctic Division
KINGSTON TAS 7050
AUSTRALIA
or by email to tourism@aad.gov.au