Tough Times for Expedition Cruise Operators

I just recently discovered www.cybercruises.com and they seem to have reported quite consistently on the cruise market, covering also expedition cruise products and operators. Just now they have summed up the recent developments for a number of exp cruise companies, and unfortunately it is mostly bad news:

We have seen plenty of offers from the main cruise lines to attract business. But the small ship and expedition business seems to have been having an even worse time of heading into this recession. Recently, we have seen $2,000 air credits, free flights to Antarctica, 40% reductions and two for one offers from several small ship or expedition companies.

The article goes on to mention that Quark Expeditions has cancelled the entire Arctic season for its iconic "flag ship" the conventional icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov. Also, there was a cancellation of the final 2009 Arctic voyage on the ice-strenghtened vessel Akademik Sergey Vavilov as well as the first departure from Murmansk to the North Pole on the nuclear icebreaker 50 Years of Victory.

Quark Expeditions has been operating the 112-berth Russian icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov in the Canadian Arctic, traversing the Northwest Passage and other waters every summer for the last fifteen years, while the 50 Years of Victory has just recently replaced its better-known sister ship, Yamal which has done these icebreaking voyages to the North Pole in previous years.

Although there has been a large amount of consolidation in the expedition voyage business, with TUI Travel taking over Quark Expeditions, Peregrine Adventures and Clipper Cruise Line's non-US flag operations, this industry has had a particularly hard time of it. While cruise lines have been happy to get targeted volumes, admittedly at much lower fares and yields, expedition companies have been desperately seeking to attract enough business.

Other companies have recently undertaken huge investments to acquire and convert new vessels for their purpose of expedition cruising, and are now exposed to both the current downturn in bookings as well as serious delays in their conversion schedules:

GAP's new ship, the 120-berth Expedition, now being converted from a Scandinavian ferry, will commence operations in the Azores this April and will then go on charter to Spitsbergen Travel for the summer. After having lost the Explorer in November 2007, the Expedition, as her replacement, was to have been ready for the 2008/09 Antarctic season, so this will now mean two seasons for GAP without their own ship in the Antarctic.

And GAP Adventures - whose last vessel was the "Little Red Ship" which I covered extensively when she sank in Antarctic waters in November 2007, are not the only ones to suffer such setbacks:

As with GAP, Oceanwide's latest ship, the 112-berth Plancius, has also been delayed. Initially due to have entered service in June 2009 in Spitsbergen waters, she will now not be ready until the 2009/10 Antarctic season in November. In the meantime Oceanwide is offering reductions of up to 30% on some February and March 2009 Antarctic departures and 25% on certain 2009/10 departures by the 49-berth Professor Molchanov, including some 12- to 21-night itineraries that are not set to depart until much later this year. One of these, the 21-night departure, was a full charter that was cancelled.

Also, not mentioned in this article but also slightly delayed was the latest addition to the National Geographic fleet, the National Geographic Explorer which was supposed to be ready in Spring 2008 but was delayed by several months and could only commence operations at the end of the Arctic season 2008.



There was some consolation in these desperate times, but only for some:

One operator that was able to take advantage of the present softness in the Antarctic market was Antarpply Expeditions of Ushuaia, whose 84-berth Ushuaia ran aground in early December. While out of commission for repairs for several weeks, her operators were able to find substitute space on other ships to protect their clients' holidays. In an ordinary season, this would have been difficult, if nor impossible, as most ships would have been sold out.

The article ends with a sobering statement:

In summary, it seems that destinations such as Alaska, the Antarctic and the High Arctic are often considered as "once in a lifetime" trips and many people are just saying "not this year."

It should be added that this market has traditionally been booked well in advance, and tour operators and travel agencies which could in earlier years be confident that they would sell them, had regularly reserved large allotments or even made down payments for whole charters. As these companies now get cold feet, they release or cancel their allotments or charters, and this is probably responsible for a large part of this sudden appearance of so many unsold berths.

So how does one become "expedition cruise guide"?

So it's been a while since I lasted posted anything - or since I even last touched my website and blogs. But from time to time, writing in "long form" is more attractive than facebook or twitter, so here is another post, jam-packed with my distilled wisdom!

From time to time passengers have asked me during our time together on an expedition cruise vessel, and more recently, a few people have approached me to learn about how they could qualify and apply for such a job. So I sat down and wrote some of them a humorous e-mail which I have now decided to elaborate on, and post here.

YOUR BACKGROUND

From what I have seen most expedition staff fall into one of the following categories:

A) the adventurers - preferably with some customer-service related background, like restaurant/hotel/travel industry...

B) the (former) science guys - biologists, geologists, geophysicists, who have pursued some interest in polar topics; mind you not all of them are actually "polar scientists"!

C) the naturalist/birder - usually not scientists, but people who have a lot of field experience and dedication to their subject

D) the history buff/former staffer at a polar installation - some of them true "armchair historians" or Shackleton fans, others with some "ice time" in a science support role

E)  the professional "outdoors guys" - kayak/dive guides, ice climbers, ski bums, etc.

F)  the "where the f*** did they find this guy?" people...

Combinations of one or several types occur, but are relatively few and far between.

WHAT YOU WILL HAVE TO DO

Before you try to figure out which category you (would like to) fit into, it is important to realize that there are a range of different job descriptions to fill on most expedition cruise vessels. They fall roughly into three categories:

1. the expedition staff (Expedition leaders, their assistants, guides, zodiac drivers, logistics support staff)

2. the hotel/hospitality staff (hotel managers, barkeepers, general assistants, chefs, sous chefs, kitchen hands, stewards)

3. the presenting staff (science lecturers/artists-in-residence/celebrity speakers...)

Now, depending on the size of the vessel, staff members might be expected to appear in at least two out of the three categories, most commonly is the combination of expedition+presenting functions, but also hospitality+expedition jobs. Sometimes, especially on the smaller vessels, you will be asked to "help out" in one of the other sectors, p.e. guides helping in serving drinks, helping in the galley, or barkeepers helping out in zodiac operations are quite common. So unless you are a "senior scientist/celebrity speaker" onboard, refusal to help out somewhere else than in your appointed specialty will reflect badly upon you. You are literally "in the same boat" with your shipmates, so when it's all hands on deck that's exactly where you should be.

Just to clarify, most people in the industry are actually not "type B" or even "type C" but even if you come from a background in, let's say corporate law & finance, you might find your niche in any of the other categories (let's just hope it is not in "type F"...). Also, if you have higher aspirations, it might be interesting to know that expedition leaders are recruited from all 6 types (yep, also from "type F" - deal with it...).

HOW TO APPLY

So here is what I recommend you do for your application:

• check out the websites and relevant literature of your prospective employer. Get an idea whether you are looking at a more "luxury-style" operator or a more "expedition-style" or even "budget" operator. Adjust your expectations accordingly.

• if you can, contact somebody "on the inside" and get the details on how the respective ships are operated, whether management seems to be knowing what they are doing, and what they are typically paying...

• find out who to contact and write a short CV outlining your relevant qualifications and experience. Be aware that these companies usually get a load of job applications and have a large staff file (or if they don't, maybe you should stay away from them...!).

• If you are willing to present something - which will maximise your chances of landing a job! - choose and shortly describe 3 (or more?) topics on which you could give a decent, public interest presentation (does not have to be "hardcore" polar science or polar history, some "human interest" stories with a polar twist - "my first polar bear"/"my time as student/guide/research diver... on Svalbard/in the Antarctic"/life at xyz scientific base" or something like that might do the trick).

HOW TO PRESENT ONBOARD

When planning and building those presentations (Powerpoint!) think pictures are better than text, simple words are better than scientific terms, funny is better than boring, and shorter is better than longer. 

Rule of thumb: not more than 30 minutes of slides, mix it up and change formats once or twice (i.e. mix still photos/video/sound bites/whiteboard/just talk...) and most important of all, allow plenty of time for interaction, questions, and debate. 

If you are confident, encourage questions during the presentation (but keep debate to the end), if you rather want to "coast through", make sure to mention that there will be time for questions at the end.

Relevant skills expected from you as guide

- happy to be with tourists all day, in a guide/leadership role

- public speaking, some polar exposure and field competence

- VHF radio and GPS skills, zodiac and outboard experience

- some wildlife spotting and interaction experience

- being able to create and support a "good vibe" within your team and on your ship

Some of this stuff can be learnt (and should be part of the operator's staff training program) while other things are just crucial skills you should bring to the table. As a rule, let's say you should check on at least three of the five points mentioned.

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A few things you should avoid

(based on real life, believe it or not)

- complain about the cold...

- narrate how the last voyage was "so much cooler"

- disappear into one's cabin whenever possible (dude, you are working!)

- express the view that penguins/reindeer are "boring"

- excessively drink and party (dude, you are still working!)

- openly f*** around with passengers...

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Of course you should have fun onboard, and you should have the right to some privacy some times, but f***ing around or constantly "disappearing" are the two sure-fire ways to get yourself fired.

The other things will at least earn you some "quality time" with senior staff or the expedition leader (EL), which in this case would not be a good thing.

Having said all that that, I would like to conclude with some words of wisdom from my buddy Mike Murphy, a polar expedition cruise pioneer - he started working as zodiac driver in the 70's, about 5 minutes after expedition cruises were invented:

"It's not about being a polar explorer hero, or a brilliant naturalist, or a super communicator, or any of that old crap people tell you in the hiring interviews..."

...

"All of the above can be faked --- and boy you will see a lot of that being done out there all the time.... "(true enough!).

"But there is one thing, and one thing only, that cannot be faked, and it is the decisive quality for a good staffer:


...



It's all about Looking Good!"

Update on Minerva aka Explorer II aka A.v.Humboldt

Fellow blogger and cruise ship expert Doug Newman is keeping tabs on virtually every vessel on the market and has managed to research their entire owner histories. I like to cross-post these things simply for the fact that I can pepper them with links... ;-)

UPDATE: Minerva is back in route as of May 31.

Swan Hellenic has been forced to cancel its first cruise with its once and future ship, Minerva, due to unexpected generator difficulties. The eight-night Norwegian Fjords cruise was scheduled to depart from Dover on Friday 23 May, returning on Saturday, 31 May and was scheduled to call at Bergen, Flam, Ulvik, Stavanger and Kristiansand. The ship is scheduled to arrive in Hamburg tomorrow, 22 May, concluding her charter to Phoenix Reisen. According to a statement from Swan Hellenic, “[The problem] in no way affects the safety of the passengers on board and the ship will finish its current cruise on schedule this Thursday at Hamburg, where a thorough assessment can be undertaken. Once this is completed a further announcement will be made.”

The 12,331 GT, 350-berth Minerva was originally built in for Swan Hellenic in 1996 off the hull of an unfinished Russian research ship. The ship operated for Swan — then part of P&O, and later its cruise spin-off P&O Princess Cruises plc, which became Carnival plc in a merger with Carnival Corporation in 2003 — until replaced in 2003 by the larger, 30,277 GT, 710-berth Minerva II, built in 2001 as Renaissance Cruises’ R Eight. In 2006, Carnival took the decision to transfer Minerva II to Princess Cruises as Royal Princess in April 2007, and sell the now-dormant Swan Hellenic brand. While many Swan loyalists feared this unique cruise line would disappear, former P&O and P&O Princess chairman Lord Sterling came to the rescue in 2007. He quickly forged a partnership with All Leisure Group plc, parent of Voyages of Discovery, which had already arranged a charter of the former Minerva beginning in 2008. Thus the ship, which had bounced around between Saga Cruises as Saga Pearl", Abercrombie & Kent as Explorer II (with additional sub-charters to Regent Seven Seas Cruises) and Phoenix Reisen as Alexander von Humboldt, would come full circle and re-join the revived Swan Hellenic, rather than Voyages of Discovery as originally planned. Now it appears that her long-awaited re-entry into service will be slightly postponed, but that is unlikely to put much of a damper on the enthusiasm of Swan regulars, many of whom found Minerva II too large and anticipated returning to “their” ship once again.

Hooded Seals get SatNav, too

Southern Elephant seals have been known for a while to be perfect "vessels of opportunity" for oceanographic as well as biological research. More recently, narwhals were also discovered as suitable carriers of oceanographic data loggers, which communicate their collected data through the ARGOS satellite system, and were aptly titled oceanographic unicorns.

Now hooded seals join the club, as they now also get to carry loggers and sat transponders on their heads:



According to the researchers in charge, these SRDLs (Satellite-Relay Data Loggers) weigh about 400 g, and have negligible impact on the seals. They represent a maximum of 2% of the body weight of the animal carrying them, which range in size from 30 kg – 1.5 tonnes.

This is the new "Alexander v. Humboldt II"

In November I blogged about the recent ship changes and sometimes only name changes in the expedition cruise industry. Now it's time for a follow-up:

remember the "Alexander von Humboldt" aka Explorer II?



Now Phoenix Reisen is ending their contract with this vessel (which btw is reversing its name back to "Minerva") and instead they got another ship as of this August, and they will call her - hold on - "Alexander von Humboldt II"!



Cross-posting from fellow blogger Doug Newman:

"The ship, built in 1990 as Crown Monarch for Crown Cruise Line, spent 1994 to 2006 as a gambling ship, first as Nautican in Singapore and then as Walrus (later marketed as Neptune) from Hong Kong. In 2006 Sea Containers, the successor of the ship’s original owner, sold the ship to Club Cruise and from 2007 she was chartered to the newly-formed Spanish cruise line Vision Cruises for cruises from Valencia. It is unclear what will happen to Vision Cruises when it loses its ship in 2008.

Although not an expedition vessel, the relatively small size and maneuverability of Alexander von Humboldt II should help make her a success in her new role."

End of Season - homeward bound

This will be my last post for this Antarctic season, as my vessel has just come into port and I will be flying home tomorrow. It has been a long and intense season, and I will definitely need a few days to recover and get back into normality again. I will post again as soon as "shore acclimatization" is accomplished again ;-)

Short update before the last trip

Here we are again, back in Ushuaia where things slowly start to wind down and the weather is turning even windier and chillier than during the earlier summer months... ;-)

After one trip on the "Grigoriy Mikheev" with 17 divers I was scheduled to "jump ship" once again and lead another diving expedition on the "Aleksey Maryshev", the sister ship of the "Mikheev". Unfortunately, the "Maryhsev" was not able to sail due to some engine issues, so I was suddenly stuck in town without a ship to work on.

After two days that situation was resolved and I was relocated on yet another Oceanwide vessel, the "Professor Multanovskiy", which happens to be my very first ship that I worked on for Oceanwide (Arctic summer 2002). It was certainly a challenging trip since we had a charter group onboard who were planning on doing ice climbing, kayaking and "regular excursions" every day (morning and afternoon!), and on top of that they requested to be put ashore twice for a night of camping on Antarctica.

So we were all pretty busy making it all happen, and I am happy to say that the kayaking worked out great, the climbers were happy with the spots we found for them, and also the camping worked out well. But it was pretty intense and there was a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes as well (but I will not talk about that here obviously...).

Today we are heading out again, for the last voyage of the season, and we expect a full ship again. This time it will be with "normal passengers", i.e. no climbing, no camping and no (scheduled) kayaking either. I am instructed to give kayaking a go anyway if there are some experienced and interested customers onboard, and if conditions allow. Unfortunately our kayak guide had to leave after this trip so I will have to double-task: expedition leading and kayak guiding! Should be fun...

More about all that - and hopefully there will also be time for new pictures - in April when I will be back home again.

R & R in Buenos Aires

After having finished this season´s contract with Peregrine Shipping, I am taking a few days in Buenos Aires to recharge before I return to Ushuaia and to the Antarctic Peninsula for the final month of cruising. Yes, another full month! Believe it or not, my last trip is leaving on March 21 and due back in port April 1.

The next two trips will be with scuba diving customers, one on "Grigoriy Mikheev" and the next on its sister ship "Aleksey Maryshev", then the final trip will be on "Professor Multanovskiy" which is currently still operating for Quark Expeditions.

The last trip on Peregrine´s vessel "Akademik Ioffe" went to the Falklands, South Georgia and the northern Peninsula region. It was my first trip on the Ioffe and it took me a few days to get used to its slightly different setup. But the trip itself went great and the rest of the staff team were really great to work with again.

On the previous Falklands-South Georgia-AntPen (with Akad. Sergey Vavilov) trip we had made a landing on the South Orkneys, on this one we managed to zodiac cruise around Point Wild - what else can one wish for! As per usual, we got blown out of a few sites in South Georgia, but we always managed to make up for that by visiting some other places. And the Falklands impressed me yet again: incredible wildlife experiences, fantastic people, great atmosphere...

We were also briefed by several of the Quark management staff on the ongoing and future changes to the company and to our operations, now that Quark has assumed control of the former "Adventurefleet" ships, including Vavilov and Ioffe. The Quark Fleet will certainly be the biggest player on the market from now on, both in terms of ships and in terms of passenger capacity, with Hurtigruten as no.2 on the Antarctic market and Oceanwide as no. 2 on the Arctic (counting the current Arctic charter of "Antarctic Dream" as a part of the Oceanwide fleet).

On all occasions have Quark management confirmed that they will not resume scuba diving operations as part of their programme, so Oceanwide (and Waterproof Exp.) will remain the only players on that field.

Additionally, Quark is expanding its commitment in the Svalbard-East Greenland area by one ship. The Akademik Shokalsky will be joining the Akademik Sergey Vavilov in that area, so one can expect more encounters and more need for careful scheduling in the Svalbard area as well.

Interesting times!

first harbour day of 2008 Antarctic

Just a short note on how things are going down here:

I have just returned from an 18-day trip to the Falklands (Carcass & Saunders Is.), South Georgia, and the Antarctic Peninsula on the Akademik Sergey Vavilov (see previous posts for pictures). The ship is incredibly stable and comfortable even in fairly bad weather, and so the trip was a breeze. Also, I have been working with the largest shipboard staff team yet, 20 strong! Considering that we had around 95 passengers, the staff-passenger ratio was excellent and we all had a great time.

Another new thing for me is the addition of a videographer on the staff, which happens to be my cabin mate. Unfortunately, that means that our desk is overflowing with video gear, a 24-inch iMac, tripds, DVD covers everywhere... and from time to time the cabin becomes a recording studio for voice-overs!

But the work he has done is incredible, I managed to catch a glimpse of the 40-minute high-def video that he shot, edited, sound-edited and presented, all during the voyage... he did not get too much sleep, or when he did you could see the impressions of the keyboard on his forehead... ;-)

In a few hours I am off for another voyage on the Vavilov, back in port on February 6. Hopefully, next time I get shore leave I remember to bring the CD with the images of the voyage, so I can upload some on the website. For now, this text will have to suffice.

Hurtigruten vessel "Fram" loses power, hits iceberg

It seems that the string of news about Antarctic shipping accidents is far from over:

A few days ago, Hurtigruten's newest vessel in the fleet, the FRAM has had an incident where it lost engine power for a period of 30 minutes during which the vessel drifted just past a skerry and scratched along an iceberg. The ship is currently sitting at anchorage off Ushuaia and has cancelled the trip they should have been commencing on January 02.

Statements following the "Explorer" sinking

Fellow blogger and cruise ship specialist Doug Newman has been following the "Explorer" shipping disaster closely, and has also gathered statements from both GAP Adventures, the operating company of the ship at the time of the sinking, as well as from Lindblad Expeditions, the original operator of the ship, which put her into service in 1969.

Doug puts the prominent place of the "Explorer" into perspective like this:

"The “little red ship” was one of the most important cruise ships in history; the seminal expedition cruise ship, she was to expedition cruising what Royal Caribbean’s Song of Norway was to the rest of the cruising world, or maybe even more."

Sven-Olof Lindblad, the son of company founder Lars-Erik Lindblad, has posted an article titled Remembering the 'Little Red Ship' which recounts some of the dramatic history of the ship while it was still in operation for Lindblad Expeditions. You can download the full article here.

GAP Adventures’ CEO Bruce Poon Tip also issued a statement regarding the loss of the ship, finishing with the words:

"The Explorer left us in very dramatic fashion. She couldn't just go quietly in the night but instead, was hanging on and danced her way out of commission. She made everyone watch for just a minute to remember her history as she hung on long enough to allow all of her passengers to disembark to safety. I would expect nothing less from her. The Explorer has been a big part of our history as a company and represented the true spirit of what makes our company special. We thank everyone who has been part of making it happen over the years."

Some ramblings about the climate change debate

Reading up for my previous post about the Amazon rainforest and climate change, I was again reminded of the fact that the global climate change debate seems to evolve into a battle with two fronts. Let there be no doubt about it: global climate change is a fact. A vast majority of scientists - people who are trained to disagree, you could say ;-) have arrived at the conclusion that there is substantial evidence for dramatic changes going on in our climate. So why would there be a two-fronted battle?

Of course, on the one side you have your nay-sayers, sceptics and those who would rather believe in global conspiracies than in scientifically documented reports. These people will always be present in some number and typically also with some sort of agenda. Apart from the "conspiracy theorists", these people would say "it is only natural" or "there have always been ups and downs, nothing to worry". The more interesting fraction will claim that there is some degree of change in our environment, but that it is due to some hitherto unknown phenomenon, or due to some factors which have been downplayed so far.

Depending on the level of their conviction, on their underlying motivation and their agenda, it will be hard if not impossible to argue with some of these nay-sayers and come to some consensus. As in every argument where the stakes are high, you have to expect that you simply cannot reach a consensus with some part of your opposition.

So what about the other front of the battle? That is the truly surprising and truly frustrating element of the ongoing debate, as I see it: everybody and their dog seem to have become "global climate experts", and they appear with bold statements in the media and in the public debate. Unfortunately, many of these self-proclaimed or media-acclaimed "experts" and "scientific writers" and "environmental activists" do not have more than the most basic training in natural sciences, let alone ecology, geophysics or climatology.

It does not take long to select a few examples:

• the "polar ice cap" - so many statements about the status of the "polar ice" do not bother to discriminate between sea ice and glacial ice. Melting sea ice is linked with rising sea levels (hello, Archimedes!), retreating glaciers are linked to retreating pack ice distribution, the link between the "global conveyor belt" i.e. the oceans' deep-water circulation, and sea ice formation and distribution is strangely under-represented. Surprisingly many people do not even mention the fundamental differences between the "Arctic ice cap" - an ice-covered ocean - and the "Antarctic ice cap" - an ice-covered continent. Nor do they realize that even Arctic and Antarctic sea ice are affected by very different dynamics, and the "ice shelves" are by many believed to consist of sea ice, simply because shelf ice floats on the sea.

• "save the rainforest" - true, rainforests perform vital tasks in filtering water, releasing oxygen, and storing carbon. In fact, all forests on Earth perform these services to some degree. But tropical rainforests are not such great "carbon sinks" as many claim: they do not store any more carbon than is contained in their biomass, and they deposit almost nothing. That is the great tragedy of tropical deforestation: the soil that is converted into agricultural use is often so poor that it does not even serve as proper pasture. The one point where tropical rainforests do excel above temperate forests (which are much more important as carbon sinks, in that they deposit much more in their soil) is biological diversity. And unfortunately, the preservation of biological diversity is still regarded as a luxury rather than as a necessity.

• "glaciers as climate change thermometers" - how many examples of collapsing glacier fronts have been in the press, on Greenpeace campaigns, or on television programs? Common for all of them is a profound misunderstanding of glaciers acting as thermometers. True, glaciers are affected by air temperature, and they are also retreating in many locations all over the world. But to claim that air temperature alone is the driving factor of glacier extent is ignoring all the other factors that together make up the specific mass balance and dynamics of a glacier, like size, precipitation received, altitude, proximity to the sea, underlying bedrock etc. pp.

Also, in many cases reports claim that the status "before" the onset of climate change was "natural", while the current status "after" climate change is not. But where is the original extent, the reference line against which we should compare current levels? And how would such a reference be meaningful?

There are a number of other examples where some "experts" among the "supporters" as well as the "sceptics" are mixing up facts, misunderstanding or misinterpreting them. And this is the truly puzzling part of this: if somebody without proper medical training makes a bold diagnosis on a patient, very few people would be inclined to take this very seriously. But in ecology, geophysics, or oceanography, there seems to be a much lower threshold. Why?

So this is where I see the second "front" in the "battle" over climate change: the so-called "experts" (of both parties) who got it wrong. In between these two fronts, between the sceptics and the unqualified "experts" are the scientists and campaigners who actually know what they are talking about. The doctors who actually know how to diagnose a patient, if you like.

To stick with this metaphor, these doctors now have to deal with some opponents who claim that the patient is not sick at all (or that the patient is going to be all right, not to worry) while some other "doctors" enter the scene stating false diagnoses with great conviction.

Unfortunately, many of the unqualified "experts" are found among the supporters of climate change and in the conservation movement. Not only will many of these well-meaning but ill-informed "experts" react with hostility when challenged by scientists, they also play in the hands of the sceptics in a formidable way.

The great tragedy of this debate is that the ones to blame for all this confusion and especially for the existence of "experts" who got it wrong, are the scientists themselves. If the natural science education in the schools as well as the public outreach and communication of science to the public had been more thorough and more serious, I doubt that we would have this problem. Scientists will have to become and train better teachers, and they will have to become and train better science communicators.

International Polar Tourism Research Network now online

As polar tourism increases, so does the body of research that studies it. This newly launched website offers a comprehensive overview of literature on the subject of polar tourism (though mostly from a geographic viewpoint, as it seems) and is according to the website's own statement meant to "...foster increased connections between the many researchers studying polar tourism. In addition, the International Polar Tourism Research Network welcomes not only researchers, but also polar tourism operators, consultants, students and community leaders shaping the industry and phenomenon of polar tourism."



The creation of the International Polar Tourism Research Network is the idea of a group of polar tourism researchers who met in 2006 at the Annual conference of the Canadian Association of Geographer held that year at Lakehead University, in Thunder Bay.



The International Polar Tourism Research Network website is supported by the Université du Québec A Montréal (UQAM) and the Centre international de formation et de recherche en tourisme (CIFORT).

Unfortunately, that makes it a bit cumbersome to search, as this function is currently only available in French.

Explorer II = Minerva; Alexander von Humboldt II = Jules Verne

It used to be so simple:

"Explorer" was the former "Lindblad Explorer" that turned into "Society Explorer" and finally "GAP Explorer" or simply "Explorer".

Then there was "Explorer II", which was at times also "Alexander von Humboldt" when it was operated by Phoenix Reisen. Otherwise Abercrombie & Kent would call her "Explorer II", simply because they used to charter the original "Explorer" before.

But now Phoenix Reisen does not charter the same vessel any more, so one would think that A & K have it all to themselves.

But wait: while Phoenix Reisen is now chartering the "Jules Verne" - calling her "Alexander von Humboldt II" - the new owners of the vessel, Swan Hellenic have come up with an idea: why not rename "Explorer II" into "Minerva" (again)?

Meanwhile, the original "Explorer" is assumed to have sunk, while the expedition cruiser "Alexander von Humboldt" simply ceased to exist...

And did I mention that the previous operator of the "Explorer", Lindblad Expeditions, is now refitting a former Hurtigruten ship, the former Lyngen, and they will call her National Geographic Explorer.

As usual, Wikipedia helps solve these and other riddles. Here is a list of cruise ships, replete with dates and previous names!

Official IAATO statement on sinking of Explorer

The International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO) has issued an official statement summing up the reported events of the M/V Explorer incident, indicating that there is still some uncertainty as to whether or not that ship has actually sunk. Apparently, there were no direct eye witnesses of the sinking, and so it might still be floating - upside down - and thus pose a serious navigational hazard.

All member vessels are requested to keep a keen lookout around the position of 62° 23' 32" S, 57° 16' 09" W, the position from which the distress call was issued. Also, any flotsam or debris on beaches in the area should be reported.

All the passengers and ship's crew have been put ashore on King George Island, where they were received in several scientific stations there and subsequently flown out by chartered plane to Punta Arenas, Chile.

One day after the evacuation and rescue of Explorer's crew and passengers, the Oceanwide Expeditions vessel M/V Professor Molchanov patrolled the area and reported an oil spill of approximately 1 square nm around 62° 24' S 57° 12' W.

The M/V Explorer was stated to burn marine gas oil (MGO) as fuel oil and it is hoped and expected that this fuel will disperse quickly without serious adverse effects to the environment.

Little Red Ship has sunk

According to Chilean Navy reports, the M/V Explorer has disappeared from view and is assumed to have sunk.

Following reports of the maritime distress call and subsequent rescue by the Norwegian M/S Nordnorge, the media picked up reports related to inspections this May by the British Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) at Greenock, Scotland, as well as by Chilean port authorities in Puerto Natales in March.



The MCA found that the MS Explorer had five deficiencies, including missing search and rescue plans and lifeboat maintenance problems. However, according to MCA spokesman Mark Clarke, they had all been rectified by the time the ship set sail again. Earlier this year, Chilean port state control inspectors had found six deficiencies during an inspection of the ship. These included two related to safety of navigation matters. However, since this inspection preceded the MCA inspection, one can assume that they had been dealt with by the time the ship commenced its 2007 Antarctic season. Classification society Det Norske Veritas issued a passenger safety certificate for the vessel on October 21.



Although the vessel had older, open-type lifeboats rather than the more modern closed lifeboats, this was not in violation of any current maritime regulation and as this event showed, even open inflatables were used successfully in this abandon ship operation.

"Little Red Ship" Explorer abandoned after collision

The cruise ship "Explorer", formerly known and famous as "Lindblad Explorer" or affectionately called "the little red ship" has today issued a maritime distress call after what appears to have been an iceberg collision near King George Island, South Shetlands, Antarctica. All passengers and crew have abandoned ship and have been transferred to the Norwegian Hurtigruten vessel M/S Nordnorge, which also serves as an Antarctic cruise ship during austral summer months.



The "Explorer" was built 1969 in Nystad, Finland for a Norwegian company, K/S A/S Explorer & Co, Oslo, Norway. It had been especially designed as ice-strengthened cruise ship and is one of the pioneering vessels of polar expedition cruising.

In 1972 the ship was already involved in a shipping desaster in the very same area in Antarctica, namely King George Island, when it ran aground at Punta la Plaza/Plaza Point (62°05'S 58°22'W). It was abandoned by its crew and could be salvaged only about two weeks later, by the German tug boat "Arctic". Following that incident, it was sold to new owners, United Cruising Co Ltd (also known as "Svenska Amerika Linien") who repaired her and put her back into traffic.



The vessel changed owners, names, flags and homeports repeatedly during the 80's and received a major overhaul in 1985 in Singapore as well as another overhaul in 1993. In 1989 it was also in the headlines as it assisted in the "Bahia Paradiso" shipping disaster where the Argentine supply vessel sank near the USAP base Palmer Station on Anvers Island.

It became quite famous as "Lindblad Explorer", named after the Swedish polar tourism pioneer Lars Eric Lindblad who together with his son Sven Olof Lindblad pioneered in expedition travel, both shipborne and overland. Their company has since developed into a partnership with National Geographic and currently operates a fleet of 6 National Geographic vessels. Ironically, the newest addition to their fleet, the National Geographic Explorer, is going to be a refitted Hurtigruten ship, the former Lyngen.

In 2004, the original Explorer/Lindblad Explorer was purchased by GAP Adventures, Toronto and received yet another major overhaul in Genoa, Italy. Already the 2004/05 Antarctic season it was back in traffic again. Since then it has resumed cruising the Antarctic Peninsula, the Amazonas, the European and Canadian Arctic.



It seems as if this vessel has finally been forced to end its long and adventurous career.

P.S.: Another ironic coincidence about the role of the Hurtigruten ships in Antarctic expedition cruising: in February this year (2007) the sister ship of M/S Nordnorge, the M/S Nordkapp, ran aground near Deception Island and had to transfer her passengers to M/S Nordnorge.

P.P.S.: During the initial rescue and relief effort for the "Explorer", she also received assistance by her replacement of Lindblad Expeditions, the National Geographic Endeavour.

UPDATE: Explorer has sunk

Proceedings of the 2007 International Polar Diving Workshop available

The Smithsonian Institute's Scientific Diving Program has recently held an international workshop on Polar Diving in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard. The proceedings are now available here and I have also uploaded them on my own website's download section.

Here is an overview of the contents of this proceedings issue:




Interestingly, the workshop also covered the "USCGC Healy Diving Mishap" where two US coast guard divers died during an under-ice dive. According to the report, there were several serious and hair-raising issues with the divers' qualifications, the site and dive supervision, inadequate training of dive tenders (who apparently were also consuming alcohol), extraordinary amounts of lead weights used by divers ("... in excess of 60 pounds...") and the list just goes on.
As I had blogged a while after the incident, this had also some serious consequences for the commanding officer of the USCGC Healy (see original posting here).

But the proceedings also specify the national requirements for ice diving for the various polar research programs:





Although it is a pretty thick volume to read through, it definitely contains lots of valuable information on polar diving, and not only for scientific diving applications but also for the recreational diver or even underwater photographers.

DEMA show 2007 - Orlando

Last week, the "Diving Equipment & Marketing Association" (DEMA) held their annual trade fair at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. This event is the industry's only international trade-only event and regularly features new product showcases, new destinations, and new companies.



Oceanwide Expeditions has traditionally been one of the exhibitors at the show, and this year I was invited to join the US staff at the booth and to give the seminar presentations on Oceanwide's polar diving activities.



To give you a feeling for the size of the event, here is a floorplan (Oceanwide's booth is marked with a red circle).



Apart from the two seminar presentations, we had to man the booth during opening hours, meet with long-time clients as well as potential future business partners and offer information, brochures and in-depth information (no pun intended ;-) about our diving operations.



Here you can see Marina (Oceanwide's US office) and Michel (Oceanwide's executive director) at our booth.

We had a quite successful show, all things considered, and have been able to establish some very interesting contacts as well as renewed some previous contacts with tour operators and agents. This was not a customer event and there were almost no items on display or for purchase. Such trade-only events seem mostly about number-crunching and hand-shaking and not so much about buying or selling, but I was able to check out some new products and make some contacts with equipment manufacturers in between presentations.

One of the most interesting things to see during the show were the new Poseidon Cis-Lunar Mk VI rebreather which is a remarkably compact and lightweight unit.



It also bears strange resemblance to the Seaway CORA II rebreather which I was able to test dive last year in prototype version. Unfortunately this unit never really made it into full production and sales, the company seems to have disappeared or at least its internet presence is suspended (site under construction).

Another interesting bit of news is the Poseidon Flexisuit which is hoped to appeal to the advanced rebreather and technical diver community. I tried it, it is extremely soft and flexible, but for my taset even TOO soft and TOO flexible.

But a front-entry zip has of course always en vogue in the tech/rb community so I guess this suit is going to be a hit (just not with me). Here is a picture:



Another exciting new product which unfortunately was not quite ready yet for the market is the OTS full-face mask. Unfortunately, I was not able to take a picture but it resembles pretty much the Interspiro (AGA) mask that everybody knows as the "gold standard" for lightweight FFM's.



Interspiro Divator

But the guys at OTS had the ambition to make an even better FFM so they pulled up a list of issues that users have had with the IS Divator mask:

• bad fit for small/narrow faces
• regulator is permanently attached to FFM body
• regulator comes from the left (as is usual in rescue/recovery, professional and firefighter masks, but not in sports diving)
• mask body has quite large volume above the oral/nasal cavity (thus often requires counterweights attached to the sides)
• quite highly priced

So they tried to fix it, and here is what they came up with (so sorry, still only text):

• double latex seal for improved fit
• detacheable regulator (p-connector with release button inside)
• regulator can be mounted from left or right
• mask body with smaller volume (only slightly, but they say it makes a difference...)
• roughly 50% of the retail price of the IS Divator (but shipping will start approx. in 6 months, so who knows...)

On top of that they have decided to offer it in a range of attractive color combinations... ;-)






I ended up not buying (or rather, ordering) a mask from them yet, as they admitted that it would still need a couple of rounds of serious tests and "some small adjustments and improvements".

But it looks like as if I will be going to the DEMA 2008 as well, next year it will be in Las Vegas, and by then they promised to have the mask ready and shipping!

Images of OTS FFM prototypes by remi, Hareid Sub Sea, originally posted at www.dykkesiden.no.

Argentine Icebreaker Irizar salvaged and back in harbour

Recently I reported on the fire aboard the Almirante Irizar. Some of my colleagues had their scientific cargo on the vessel, but fortunately they were not onboard at the time of the desaster. The fire has now been put out and the vessel has been brought into port by the Argentine navy.

From Wikipedia:

"On April 10, 2007, 22.00 Argentine time the icebreaker run an alarm by fire in the secondary electricity generators. By 23.30 the captain had ordered the evacuation. Argentine Navy and Argentine Coast Guard aircraft operated to keep track of the 24 lifeboats. The 296 persons inside the icebreaker (that includes civilians of the antarctic bases) were helped by the nearest ships: a Panamanian tanker and by a Uruguayan and Argentine fishing vessels.
The icebreaker was returning from its annual Antarctic summer campaign, and the incident took place 140 miles east from Puerto Madryn.

The fire caused the loss of the two stationed H-3 Sea King helicopters located into its hangar.
The crew arrived safely to Puerto Madryn on April 12. There were no casualties.

Irizar 's Captain Guillermo Nelson Tarapow had stood alone almost 24 hours after seeing his crew safely abandon ship. Starting April 11, destroyer ARA Almirante Brown, corvettes ARA Granville and ARA Robinson, Auxiliary Ships ARA Gurruchaga and ARA Suboficial Castillo and Coast Guard PNA Thompson surrounded the Icebreaker and began rescue operations. Buzos Tacticos (Argent. special forces, combat divers) and members of the Rescue Team (Servicio de Salvamento) of the Argentine Navy board the ship and extinguished the fire. On April 15, preparations to tow the ship to Puerto Belgrano naval base began. Irizar finally arrived to Puerto Belgrano on April 20. "

X-Ray Dive Mag #16

X-Ray, the free online dive mag, has recently published issue 16, including several favourite topics of mine:



• Reactive Oxygen Species (hey, that's one of my research topics!)

• newly discovered species under Antarctic Ice (hey, that's another of my research topics... ;-)

• Rebreather trim with Cedric Verdier (hey, my favourite RB author on my favourite RB subject!)

So, if you are similarly minded, or just want to figure out what a free online dive magazine actually looks like, check it out.

Actually, clicking on any of the headlines above will take you directly to the relevant section download (2-4 MB each) so you will not have to handle the entire file (16MB).

Also, you might remember the blog Divester by Willy Volk. Guess where he is hanging out now: yep, at X-Ray Mag's blog.

The oceanographic unicorn

About a year ago I blogged about elephant seals which had been turned into "oceanographic vessels of opportunity" - researchers interested in the South Atlantic circulation were taking advantage of elephant seals' impressive range and diving behaviour by attaching oceanographic sensors to their heads.

Now their Arctic colleagues follow this approach by attaching similar sensor systems to narwhals, a small Arctic tooth whale species mostly known for their long tusks, which had in earlier times inspired unicorn myths.

"We've converted these animals into oceanographers," says Kristin Laidre of the Polar Science Center at the University of Washington.



The whales, which dive up to one mile deep to feed on bottom fish, already have provided the first winter temperature measurements in Baffin Bay between Canada and Greenland.



The region is part of the global "conveyor belt" of currents that brings warmer waters north, moderating the weather in northern Europe. An international science panel recently predicted global warming will slow those currents.

"Any weakening of the Gulf Stream because of climate change will immediately show up in this area," says Laidre's collaborator, Mads Peter Heide-Jørgensen of the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources.



Global climate models have basically been "faking it" when it comes to the ocean west of Greenland, said Michael Steele, a senior oceanographer at the Polar Science Center.

"There's just a huge data hole in this part of the world ocean in the winter," he said.

More about the narwhal project here on the NOAA pages.

Argentine Icebreaker Irizar abandoned at sea after fire

A raging fire aboard an Argentine navy vessel Almirante Irizar, South America's only icebreaker, forced all 296 crew and passengers to abandon ship in the South Atlantic, where they spent hours in lifeboats awaiting rescue.

The fire broke out in the Almirante Irizar's auxiliary generator compartment late Tuesday, and Capt. Guillermo Tarapow ordered all aboard to abandon ship in 24 lifeboats when the flames became uncontrollable.

The Panamanian-flagged tanker Scarlet Ibis and an Uruguayan fishing vessel were the first to arrive in the area, some 140 miles (225 kilometers) east of Puerto Madryn, and managed to pluck people from most of the lifeboats drifting off the remote Patagonian city of Puerto Madryn, 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) south of the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires.

The Almirante Irizar was built in Finland and acquired by the Argentine navy in 1978. Measuring 390 feet (119 meters) in length, it has played key roles in Argentina's annual supply runs to Antarctica in the warmer Southern Hemisphere summer that begins each December.

The ship had restocked more than a dozen Argentine bases and research stations, and was returning to Buenos Aires with armed forces personnel who had concluded stints in Antarctica, when the fire broke out just after 10 p.m. Tuesday.

Passengers aboard the Irizar included civilian employees of Argentina's Antarctic National Command operation as well as army, air force and navy personnel.

Tugboats are now heading to the Irizar in order to assist her.

March of the Tourists

DEVIL ISLAND, Antarctica (CNN) -- Antarctica is the coldest, driest and windiest place in the world but during the high summer, it can feel decidedly mild.

From the top of Devil Island, off the eastern edge of the Antarctic Peninsula, the watery sun reflects off the vast tabular icebergs drifting around the Weddell Sea. At the base of the island, as many as 20,000 pairs of Adélie penguins make their home.

Moored offshore is the MS Explorer, a 75 meter cruise ship which can take up to 105 passengers. Four inflatable Zodiacs dart back and forth from the vessel, bringing tourists to shore to see the penguins up close.

Mary Brogan, 55, from Dublin, has been planning this trip for over a year with her husband and five friends. But now she's here, she says she worries about the impact of tourism.

"We definitely disturb the wildlife by coming here," Brogan says. "There are crowds of us on the beaches, sticking cameras in the poor penguins' faces."

Tourist numbers are rising to Antarctica even though this is a high-priced vacation. A 10-day cruise trip costs upward of $4,000 but the number of visitors has doubled in the last three years to nearly 30,000.

Dr Shannon Fowler, 32, from California, is a marine mammal biologist and lectures to the passengers on board Explorer.

"I do face a personal dilemma about bringing tourists here but if people can't see something, will they really want to protect it? If you blocked tourism, how many people would say, 'no, you can't mine here' or 'let's protect this place'?"

More tourism will raise public awareness about Antarctica's unique ecosystem but there are also fears about higher traffic to the region. Cruise ship accidents remain one of the biggest threats to the environment.

Last month, the MS Nordkapp cruise ship hit rocks near Deception Island, off the Antarctic Peninsula, spilling diesel oil into the bay.

Stephen Ansfee is Explorer's Expedition Leader. "We are getting close to capacity in Antarctica and as the ships get bigger, so do the environmental risks. We will need stricter controls as tourism grows."

Most travel companies in the region subscribe to IAATO, the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators, which sets guidelines to manage tourism here. The problem is IAATO is a voluntary self-regulated organization and anyone can opt out of the system.

Because no one owns Antarctica, no one is responsible for the continent's safeguard. For better or worse, the future of Antarctica may depend on how many people choose to save up and make the once-in-a-lifetime journey.

Mary Brogan agrees. "Of course I am going to tell my friends about Antarctica when I get home. But am I doing any good encouraging them to come here? It's hard to know."

By Michelle Jana Chan, CNN

back from the Antarctic Peninsula

Just a quick update for the blog (when have I last touched it... :rolleyes:)

I just returned from Antarctica via Argentina (which, according to the Argentineans, really is the same thing... ;-) and will post some news, links and pics here and on my home page. Expect some new sites and designs there, too!

I should also be able to put together a little picture album of some Antarctic diving as well as zodiac landing, as well as a download section (no, not for the pics... ;-) where you can get the full-text, color and image files of some expedition logs as pdf files.

So watch and feel free to comment.

You like icebergs? Bring your own!

I just found this gem over at Divester, another of my regular blogs to watch.

Sure, climbing around on icebergs is a tempting, but quite risky thing to do, and even if you come in a dry suit, which will keep you relatively safe and warm in case you slip and splash, there still is one issue that stands between you and iceberg fun most of the time: when you need one, there is none!



Here you see me practice on a little one... ;-) note that 90% of the berg's mass is under water, just like it says in the books...

Of course, inversely, when you are in a rush, they are all over the place!



But thanks to the excellent folks at Comfort 1st.com, you can now get a safe, fun and practical solution: an inflatable iceberg!



Just US $5,999.95 (add US $ 200 for shipping) and it's yours!

(Approx. 20' x 14' x 14'. Ages 14 +)

Woz to the Pole - on Hydrogen Hummer...

Following up on the subject of "strange vehicles in the wrong places" here comes another treat:

Rumour has it that Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak, will be ditching his Segway temporarily to drive a hydrogen fuel cell-powered Hummer to the South Pole. James Cameron plans to film the expedition in 3D.

Woz will be part of a group that is driving several Hummers from McMurdo Station to the South Pole in December of 2007. In true Woz style, his co-pilot is Buzz Aldrin, one of the first humans to walk on the moon.

Now, if you wonder: why a Hummer? you should remember: this is an American news story, what else did you expect? Also, it is probably even beyond Woz's Segway skills to drive in a linked team*...

(*note to Non-Antarcticans: Antarctic ski-doo trips are often set up in pairs connected by a rope, should one of them fall into a crevasse)

"Ice Island" free download

Karst Productions, the company of Wes Skiles is currently offering the movie Ice Island as a free mp4-file download through a site called iDocumentary, whose only purpose seems to be to distribute free copies of that movie, which still sells for about 20 USD on Amazon or other online shops.

In short, it is a well-made documentary about Antarctic icebergs and Antarctic ice diving, and for rebreather enthusiasts, there are some Cis-Lunar systems in use and on display.

The rb diver in charge of the operation was Jill Heinerth who also talks about this expedition on a podcast episode of Bottom Time Radio (I mentioned her also in a previous post).

Obviously, there are some requirements before you can get your free (and of course somewhat compressed) copy of the documentary, i.e. you have to give up your name, email and age class as well as country of residence. Big deal...

After downloading the file and watching it in Quicktime, I must say that it is some cool and definitely hair-raising material, especially the iceberg penetration dives, which, by the way, do not take place anywhere near the famous mega-iceberg (some have called it a "teraberg") B15 but on some rather small and, one could add in a slightly blasé voice, ORDINARY iceberg... ;-)

But still, overall it is worth to watch it (but I am as happy that I did not shell out for the original DVD...)

from Antarctica to Greenland

My friend and fellow expedition cruise guide Rolf Stange has returned from his Antarctic season a bit earlier than me, and is already working at the other end of the world, i.e. in East Greenland. Here he will devote the next months to dogdriving with traditional 'Grønlander' husky teams, living in a small hut in Ittoqqortoormiit and learning to master his team of 12 more or less tame and more or less well-behaved Greenland dogs. His main tools for this task are fitness, determination and his 'kuskepisk', a long whip which is used to impress the dogs and restore a driver's ('kusk') authority in case of a turmoil.

For those who cannot find that name on the map - or do not know how to pronounce it - the Danish have invented "Scoresbysund". This still contains a surprising amount of consonants, which usually tend to get washed out of Danish pronounciation, but at least it is a bit easier than double-t's and double-q's. But I deviate...

Rolf has set up a very nice website and supplies a newsletter which can be found here in English version.

Here is an excerpt:

"As soon as the first dog is in front of the sledge, you have to get the next one. In the meantime, of course, the first one doesn't simply stay where he should, but stampedes around the sledge or, even better, under it (before you start, make sure there isn't any left there!). This means that the set of twelve lines, which you have just prepared so carefully, is soon turned into one big knot again, but just ignore it - there's nothing you can do about it anyway.

As soon as the second dog is there, you have to get the third one. In the meantime, the second will join the first one's activities, just to add to your pleasure. As soon as the third is there, things change a bit, because this is when they should start a nice little punch-up. Just pretend you don't see it and hope that they've soon got enough. Otherwise, put the wip into use. That sounds very hard, but it isn't. You will soon realise that this is an extremely important tool to improve communication between person and dogs..."

Final report into the Interactions between humans and leopard seals now available

Just returned from yet another Antarctic tourist diving expedition, I received an email from Keith Reid of the BAS and Shona Muir of the Kirsty Margot Brown Fund, announcing the final report on investigations of human-leopard seal interactions. This is a quote of the email text:

"Following the tragic death of Kirsty Brown, who was attacked and drowned by a leopard seal in July 2003 a one-year study, sponsored by the Kirsty Brown Fund and hosted at British Antarctic Survey, was set up to review the available information on humans and leopard seals in the Antarctic. Data on interactions between humans and leopard seals, from over 180 questionnaires and interviews, were analysed to provide the information required for any assessment of the risks posed by leopard seals to people working in the Antarctic. The results have been published in the journal Antarctic Science (Antarctic Science 18 (1), 61*74, March 2006) and the full report is available to download from the BAS website at this site."

The report includes reported data of all the nations involved in Antarctic aquatic research as well as nature photographers, film makers and tourist dive operators. I had been asked along with several others to participate in the online questionnaire data survey on behalf of the German Antarctic scientific diving activities, while well-known underwater photographer Göran Ehlmé, who is also in charge of Oceanwide Expeditions' polar diving activities, had been extensively contacted as advisor for the authors of this publication.

The report also decribes in detail the incident resulting in Kirsty Margot Brown's death and reviews it in comparison with other known leopard seal behaviour and seal-human interaction pattern. The appendix contains the dive policies of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the United States Antarctic Programme (USAP), and the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) for reference.

This is a most useful compilation of leopard seal interaction reports as well as a review of risk avoidance/evasion strategies.

It is also well in agreement with the position of Antarctic tourist dive expedition operators and their dive guides, who will certainly use this publication as reference for future staff and customer preparation and briefings.

BTW: In the near future, some spectacular shots by underwater phtographer Andre Crone of a leopard seal handling a freshly killed gentoo penguin near Jougla Point, Goudier Island (near Port Lockroy base), can be expected in relevant publications.

back from the Polar Circle

Just returned from another dive trip along the Peninsula. One leopard seal on the very first check dive, none for the rest of the trip. Several opportunities to snorkel and dive with Crabeater and Weddell seals, while fur seals could not be bothered. One exteemely curious minke at Cuverville, would not let us go and even chased after the zodiac...

A good bunch of people. Russians, Dutch, Swiss, German, Mexican and American with very different backgrounds and expectations, but all okay in the water and even nicer in the bar afterwards... some good UW photographers among them, and they even managed to take "one or two good ones"... which is all you can ever hope for as dive guide, anyway.

One diving passenger had been taking up scuba diving, dry suit diving, buying tons of equipment and training in a thick neoprene suit in Florida (!!!) just to be able to join this trip. Talk about commitment... but the person was "distantly related to Amundsen" so there you go.

The mexicans had been training in a volcanic crater lake at 4000m a.s.l. (Lake Tacho/Taho...?)to gain cold water experience for this while the Russians had even cut holes into the ice-covered Dnjepr and had been hanging on for dear life in the current on taut lines just to get some "under-ice experience".

As always, exchange between diving and landing pax. and guiding was mostly limited to mealtimes, where the Russians often dominated the conversation level ("Russian Tradition"!) but everybody else still seemed to enjoy themselves a lot.

Tonight we are heading out with another trip, again with divers, and this time they are Austrian, Dutch, and Russian again. Let´s see how it goes (back in 10 days).

Elephant seals diving for science

Scientists like to talk about "vessels of opportunity". These are basically 'cheap' ways to hitch a ride for a scientific project, i.e. you jump on some pre-existing cruise and use their ship and trajectory to perform some of your own data collections. Since you have not been involved in planning, funding, organizing and managing of that cruise, you (the hitchhiker) are normally bound to tag along and take things as they come, go where they go, and try to make some sense out of it for yourself afterwards.

This has greatly increased many projects and their range and coverage, but there is still one limiting factor: there are only so many rides (i.e. scientific vessels) available. But with the advent of smaller and smaller scientific devices and satellite transmission systems, there is an entirely new fleet of "vessels of opportunity" at the scientists' disposal: seals!



Researchers of the Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU), Gatty Marine Laboratory, University of St Andrews have been quite successful with this approach in their SEaOS (Southern Elephant Seals as Oceanographic Samplers) project. It basically works like this: they attach a sensor/transmitter device (a 'tag') on a seal's head as shown above. Now, as the animals swim for thousands of km and dive down to 2,000m, their tags record details of temperature, depth and the salinity of the water, and when the seals pop up to breathe, the tags transmit their information to scientists in Scotland via satellite.



Of particular importance to the scientists are oceanic fronts, i.e. where warmer and colder waters meet and mix, much like atmospheric fronts we know from weather charts. Just like atmospheric front systems, the oceanic fronts are highly dynamic and can only be adequately understood and predicted if a sufficient amount and spatial coverage of observations is available.

The seals can help with this, since they occur in significant amounts on several of the subantarctic islands and as they have wide diving and swimming ranges, they frequently cover the oceanic front systems of Antarctica.



South Georgia's population at 400,000 is the biggest group and has been relatively stable since the end of large-scale hunting in the 1950s. But the groups centred on the islands of Macquarie and Kerguelen have not fared so well; and in the case of Macquarie may still be in decline. Why this is so may emerge from an analysis of the data gathered by the seals.

And in case you worried about the tags on the seal's heads: they fall off after about a year, when the animals moult (i.e. change fur).

Postcolonial Antarctica

In the recent issue of Polar Record, there is an article about "Post-colonial Antarctica: an emerging engagement" by Klaus J. Dodds. The abstract admits that the title is actually misleading, as it states:

"Although ‘post-colonialism’ is a term that covers a great diversity of theoretical and political perspectives, it is generally agreed that it is united in its critical evaluation of colonialism and associated practices. Antarctica, thus far, has not attracted a great deal of attention from post-colonial scholars."

Well, you could argue that it is not only post-colonial scholars that have not been attracted to that continent yet, but in fact also any sort of colonial power...

Nevertheless, the author blazes on:

"By drawing on the limited engagement with Antarctica thus far, it is proposed that there are the intellectual resources for a deeper interrogation of polar colonialism and associated practices such as territorial claiming and base construction."

Fair enough, there is both territorial claiming (and quarelling at overlapping sector claims) as well as base construction and maintenance of presence. One of the best examples for that is the United States Antarctic Program (USAP) with its base at all strategic positions (Palmer St. on the Peninsula, McMurdo ST. in the Ross Sea, and Amundsen-Scott St. on the Pole, plus a varying number of field camps at other locations).

As readers are reminded of repeatedly by N. Johnson in his "BigDeadPlace" book as well as website (see previous posts), any and all of these stations are first about being there, and staying there, with "scientific projects" being the "front" of these operations.

But back to Antarctica as being post-colonial. The abstract of the paper ends by optimistically proclaiming the following:

"The paper is intended to be a starting point for a more sustained and potentially unsettling engagement with post-colonial Antarctic projects."

First I thought it was a hoax, clearly it could not be a joke, given its placement in an otherwise quite serious peer-reviewed journal. A reference to Post-colonial Austria came to mind, which I came across just recently on Distraction Economy, a blog about "attention and its deficits" ;)

Just to mention that briefly, that post discusses the (fictional) post-colonial history of Austria.
Given the fact that Austria is often conceived as suffering from being no more than an amputated version of its former Austro-Hungarian empire - although that empire was by no means as extensive as the British empire, where similar "post-imperialism" could be assumed - the story was given an extra twist by proposing Malaysia (of all countries) as its former colonial power...

But the bit where I am still wondering is the "post-" in "colonial". What make the author assume that there is any such thing in Antarctica?

Although I am no historian, I would argue that Antarctica could only be described as "pre-colonial" or "quasi-colonial" at best, if one wanted to employ the term "colonial" at all. The fact remains that although claims have been staked, and permanent human presence in the form of "research stations" have been established and are maintained by several nations, some of them even as "family societies" with even the odd child being born "Antarctican", the Antarctic Treaty has been negotiated and established exactly for one reason, and that is to arrest (and postpone) all such claims, debates and resulting attempts of industrial exploitation. And, to get back on the aspect of "science" being a "front" to such a presence, the Antarctic Treaty requires signatory states to "perform substantial scientific activity".

So far, the treaty has fulfilled its goals, and the human presence as well as political interest in Antarctica has been limited to the so far hypothetical scenario where real "colonialism" could eventually take place.

Diving Icebergs, part II

...two American cave diver dove not only under but in fact IN TO icebergs in the Ross Sea, and did "deep penetration dives" (yeah, that's what they call it) of the mega-sized iceberg (some even called it a "teraberg") B-15.

It turns out they used CCR systems (which stands for closed-circuit rebreather) - which makes sense for extended cave diving - but of course the berg calved while some of them were inside, and of course their entry was blocked by that... but miraculously they came out again, and lived to turn a profit out of it by selling it as both science and a cool documentary. And they even had the blessing and support of the US Antarctic Program of the NSF! Now, this is just too crazy and weird NOT to be true.

If you want to hear Jill Heinerth, one of the iceberg divers, you can load a podcast from "bottom time radio" (you can find it on the iTMS) or you can actually buy the documentary film that came out of that expedition, as a DVD on Amazon (look for the "Ice Island").

Diving Icebergs, part I

I also found a cool report on a recent campaign by the staff of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute - which by the way must be the grown-up version of a childhood dream to join the Cousteau team. Okay, maybe before you have seen "A Life Aquatic" ;-)

Anyway, these researchers spent December in the Weddell Sea diving a ROV around and underneath icebergs to study their impact on the water masses around them. Here is another link to their project.

Since I am myself extremely interested in ice diving, whether it is SCUBA, ROV or even AUV, this was quite cool to read.

But wait: one more thing as we talk ice diving and icebergs (two things that sometimes confused), let me state this clearly: normally, ice diving involves going through and under a more or less thick, more or less solid layer of sea ice (or fresh water ice, if you are in a lake) and NOT icebergs. Or at least that's what I thought. Who would dive under an iceberg, as a diver, anyway? And what for? Turns out, a team of US cave diving experts did just that...

on my way to the other side of the globe

Tomorrow I will be venturing on another "academic jet-set" trip which will earn me a lot of frequent flyer miles as well as an opportunity to show off my newly found Antarctic critters on a poster. So the trolley is packed, the poster roll stands by the door, and of course my trusty old WS powerbook will come along, too.

I have no idea how often or whether I will be connected to something at all, but let's see when I get there.

First, I have to brave a "short" commuter flight to Heathrow and then a 26hrs stretch (probably with a tank stop somewhere on the way) to Auckland, NZ, before I have yet another 'commute' from there to the lovely city of Dunedin. Let's see whether the bookstores at Heathrow have a NZ Lonely Planet copy left.

Isn't it odd how that you always look forward to those trips until the very night before, when nothing sounds more intreaguing than just having the usual "day at the office" the next day? Anyway, by Friday night (already Saturday morning over there) I will know what I got myself into. So long.

one year since ISPOL

I just realized that it has by now been a year since we left Cape Town for the ISPOL expedition, a 3-month scientific cruise to the central Weddell Sea - and I still have not posted a single pic to my website! Well, here are some appetizers:



Here you see our sea ice team from my institute. Our boss (middle) also happened to be the scientific cruise leader.



As soon as we arrived, we were under constant surveillance. Every piece of equipment was inspected thoroughly.



We did some diving there - that's how I usually get my stuff done - and this is a nice action shot of the team ;-)



Another action shot;-) That seal is about 3.5m long and had some big nasty teeth!
Later she came by (it was a big female) and showed me - while we both in the water.
Unfortunately, I could not repay the favour due to the big full-face mask (see pic above).

So as soon as I got these and a lot more pics properly set up on my homepage I will put up another post about it.

Big Dead Place

To make up for all that Mac-tech-cultish sort of stuff I posted recently, here I proudly present some down-to-earth facts. Actually, this is as down-to-earth as you get ;-) I found it on a genuinely hilarious, alas expired, website which now has become an archive (thanks, for the link, pete!) of a guy who had been working for extended periods on the US McMurdo Base at the Ross Sea. He has compiled a quite extensive site over the years, including a "handbook" part with introductions to some vital aspects of life in the Program, short for United States Antarctic Program (or USAP). Noteworthy is the fact that the handbook comes in two versions, though, one for hopeful newbie employees (="brunts") at the bases, and one for "Distinguished Congressional Visitors".

Here are some excerpts which are meant as appetizers and seemed to be most fitting for this blog - "brunt" version first:


From Big Dead Place:


History ("brunt" version):


"Many of the early explorers who came to Antarctica died miserably of starvation while freezing to death. This unique frozen heritage is visible just across the bay from McMurdo Station at historic Discovery Hut, built by Robert Scott in 1902. In that noble wooden hut, several men once spent four months, clothes awash with gore from their endless seal slaughtering, ..."

History (Distinguished Congressional Visitors version):


"Many of the early explorers who came to Antarctica were underfunded buffoons who did not first consult Appropriations Subcommittees before facing the unique and exciting challenges that Antarctica offered for the future. As a result, they lacked innovative leadership, and died miserably of starvation while freezing to death. This unique frozen heritage is visible just across the bay from McMurdo Station at historic Discovery Hut, built by Robert Scott in 1902. In that noble wooden hut, several men once spent four months, clothes awash with gore from their endless seal slaughtering, ..."

Science (again "brunt" version)

"Science is the process of describing the universe through physical observation. Here are some things that are not science: distributing money to scientists, dispersing press releases to the media, ..."

"Science, as an intellectual process, is not owned or orchestrated by any particular person or agency, nor is the funding of science a scientific act. The National Science Foundation is the manager of American Antarctica much like your department manager is the manager of your department..."

"In Antarctica, science is a parking permit, and those who want to stand in the parking spaces must first be able to afford the permit to stand there..."

Workers ("Distinguished Congressional Visitors" version)

"Workers are intimidating. They wear dirty clothes, they operate loud and greasy machines, and they often bear menacing scowls. They seem to look at you as if you don't belong. This is because you don't...."

A visit to Palmer Station

This is - though outdated - a pretty desillusioning piece by some NSF/WHOI bigwig who visited the third permanent US base in Antarctica, Palmer , onboard an expedition cruise vessel with a group of tourists.

See for yourself (for full-text click the link of the header or above).

I liked it and chose to post it because it reflects both on how tourist visits are generally seen and treated by scientific staff on these same stations (for good reason, some will say) and how tourists - and especially BIGWIG tourists of which there is a surprising number of, believe me - perceive such a visit. Makes me anticipate our scheduled visits to the station during one of my upcoming dive trips even more...

And the best thing is: just because the guy did not get his way - storming through the station, the quarters, the labs for "inspection" - although he played his bigwig card BIG time! he ended up hating the place, no doubt infesting the rest of "his group" with this sentiment in no time, and concludes his piece by recommending that no visit at all would be better for future trips (Uhuuaah! Didna get no toy, Dont wanna toy, Nobody getsa toy! BAH!).

So accidentally, you also get a feel why working with this kind of clientèle IS in fact a lot of work sometimes.

Okay, here are some excerpts again (with my comments in [brackets])

"Our cruise on SOCIETY EXPLORER was meticulously organized and executed. The standard of seamanship and regard for safety and the environment compared favorably or exceeded anything I saw in ten years of involvement in Antarctic marine scientific ship operations. [RIGHT!] During the cruise I observed no incident that threatened the safety of passengers nor did I see any article being jettisoned from the ship or ashore. [GOOD FOR YOU]. Prior to each landing a briefing took place which thoroughly prepared the passengers and informed them of precautions necessary to protect the ecology of the specific landing site. Any passenger who demonstrated inattention to the instructions given was politely but firmly corrected." [LIKED THAT, EH?]
...
"During this circuit of the building discomfort developed. Station and science staff, despite doing the best job possible within the prescribed ground rules, appeared uncomfortable. They were obviously trying to be polite and make people seem welcome, but really did not have ways to demonstrate this in any meaningful way. [WHAT??? SHOULD THEY HAVE BEEN SOMERSAULTING FOR YOU???] The conditions of the visit made it quite clear that we were not really welcome. Almost to a person the passengers left feeling they had been an unwelcome imposition."
...
"To complete this, which was supposed to be a brief letter, I add my personal view and hope you will not consider me presumptuous for doing so.[OH NO...] As I have said, I fully understand and sympathize with the reasons for the Palmer visitor limitations, but if the net result under the present system is decidedly negative, the visits are counter-productive for all concerned--visitors and station personnel. I believe that no visits would be better than the present situation."

Polar tourism - half expedition, half cruise, and a bit of science talk...

As you can see on my link above, I have been working for several types of tourist trips, so far mostly in the Svalbard archipelago and more recently on the Antarctic Peninsula. One of the main activities in these areas are polar cruises, at least when it comes to the number of passengers involved and the area covered by these activities. This led to the establishment of an International Association for Antarctic tour operators and a similar association for Arctic Expedition cruise operators (AECO) has recently been established as well.



Unfortunately, though, most cruise operators work with ships and schedules that are not designed for many stops or even landings, instead their programs are often mostly based on shipboard entertainment, while visits to islands or ports along the cruise track are an extra. Although these forms of travel certainly have their good sides and their luxury-cruise appeal, they are usually not very compatible with polar areas. For once, port facilities are rare in those areas, and visits have to be based on beach landing operations using tenders, often nicknamed zodiac operations by the brand name of the most commonly used inflatable dinghy or tender.



Travelling like this allows you to reach almost any interesting spot, whether it is a glacier front, a bird cliff, a remote beach strewn with whale bones, or any of the operating or historic scientific stations in the polar areas which are open and accessible to the public (most of them are, upon prior arrangement and due notification).
Uhm, come to think of it, probably not the Amundsen-Scott Station (at the South Pole) but those near the shores (where most of them are located, anyway).

Live cam from the South Pole

Having several zodiacs onboard at all times also facilitates scuba diving or snorkelling or simply cruising with your camera - or sketch block for those who have the drawing skills and enthusiam. Do not expect to reach very far inland, though, as most landings will have a limited time frame and will be set up more for a stroll or maybe a light hike than for serious climbing or trekking (so no overland trips to Amundsen-Scott either, sorry...). But then, this is for the specially interested, anyway...

The longest March - sounds tempting?

For those interested in diving into the icy waters of the Polar Oceans, serious preparation and relevant cold-water experience is a must, as this is not an environment suitable for much experimenting or even training with new or untested gear. On the other hand, if you are already comfortable in your dry suit and have been diving in cold water and (sometimes) a bit tougher conditions, can dress in and out of your gear inside a small boat and without a tender, and prefer to dive with your buddy rather than trail a guide in a flock of other divers, you should be just fine on any of the polar expedition cruise trips offering diving as an extra option.



Mind you, there will most likely not be any trips dedicated exclusively to diving, so you will always be able to combine some underwater time with a few landings or some other "topside activities", and more importantly, you will be able to bring your non-diving partners, something that these guys seem to have forgotten - and regretted...



Modern four-stroke outboard engines have largely replaced the more dynamic, but also more intrusive two-stroke engines that consume a lot more fuel while making more noise and exhaust pollution. So now you can still chat while cruising at full speed, or creep up to those seals at minimum speed while retaining full propulsion and responsiveness - in case the seals decide to come over and take a bite at your - ahem - inflatable...



Even in the unlikely event of one or several punctures, these boats are designed to stay afloat with only two out of the four large air chambers intact, while another three smaller air chambers making up the triple keel are meant to increase performance in high winds and at high speed.



Mix this with the comfort of warming up with a drink and a nice chat in the ship's lounge or bar afterwards, and maybe an evening lecture on the history of polar exploration, or about the wonders of life inside and under the sea ice, or the magnificent sea bird migrations, and you have a pretty good idea of what a day on an expedition cruise is made up of. And then if you least expect it, the sea holds yet another surprise for you...




To learn more about Polar Expedition cruises and destinations, visit Oceanwide Expeditions or a well-connected travel agency near you, like

Norden Tours - D
Exodus - UK
Beluga - NL
Adventure Associates - AUS
Big Animals - USA

Enough marketing! I will compile an archive of Polar impressions, cruising the North and the South, and it will be available
here on my website - soon ;-)

Leopard Seal (Hydrurga leptonyx)

...in case anybody wondered who or what "Leptonyx" is...

SCS: Leopard Seal (Hydrurga leptonyx)

A nice comprehensive site of the Seal Conservation Society (SCS).

And if you still wonder why I like these guys so much, take a look at the pic: