For the latest, see this new story. and this opinion piece on why this is a fiasco
UPDATE: Turns out this “research” vessel was mostly a taxpayer funded junket for getting video stories to BBC in the UK and ABC in Australia, see update2 below.
It is summer in the southern hemisphere and yet there is still signifiicantly above normal amounts of sea ice present as the passengers and crew of one tour ship discovered. The icebreakers Xue Long and Aurora Australis, and a French research vessel Astrolabe are cruising towards the Akademik Shokalskiy at full throttle for rescue. Photos and maps follow.
PR from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, Dec 25th, 2013:
Search and rescue of passenger vessel trapped in ice underway
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) is coordinating a search and rescue for a Russian passenger ship beset by ice approximately 1500 nautical miles south of Hobart.
AMSA’s Rescue Coordination Centre Australia (RCC Australia) was contacted by the Falmouth Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in the United Kingdom on Christmas morning.
The Falmouth MRCC received a distress message via satellite from a Russian flagged vessel, MV Akademik Shokalskiy, with 74 people about 7.20am (AEDT).
The ship is in the Australian Search and Rescue region, 100 nautical miles east of the French base Dumont D’Urville.
RCC Australia assumed coordination of the incident and issued a broadcast to icebreaking vessels in the area.
Three ships with icebreaking capability have responded, including the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) vessel Aurora Australis, and are now en route to the area.
The closest vessels are at least two days sailing time away.
Further updates will be provided when more information is available.
###
Source: http://www.amsa.gov.au/media/documents/25122013AkademikShokalskiyUpdate1_Media_Release.pdf
===============================================================
This is apparently an image tweeted by somebody on-board the Akademik Shokalskiy, showing the ice around it:
AMSA is now coordinating the response to a ship beset by ice about 1500nm south of Hobart. http://t.co/P4zO9RUMth http://t.co/S5ST1wgwbN
— AMSA News (@AMSA_News) December 25, 2013
UPDATE:
The expedition is being led by Chris Turney, “climate scientist”, who has “set up a carbon refining company called Carbonscape which has developed technology to fix carbon from the atmosphere and make a host of green bi-products, helping reduce greenhouse gas levels.” The purpose of the expedition is “to discover and communicate the environmental changes taking place in the south.”
http://www.christurney.com/ (h/t to Sagebrush Gardener)
It seems they found out what the “environmental changes taking place in the south.” are.
From the WUWT sea ice page, Antarctic Sea Ice is more than 2 standard deviations above normal:
![S_timeseries[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/s_timeseries1.png?quality=75)
According to this sitrep report for one of the rescue vessels, the Aurora Australis the Akademik Shokalskiy is trapped in sea ice in the Commonwealth Bay region of Antarctica.
This is what the current sea ice coverage looks like at the south pole with the approximate ship location marked:
Image source: National Snow and Ice Data Center via the WUWT sea ice page.
Wikipedia says about the ship:
MV Akademik Shokalskiy (Russian: Академик Шокальский) is an Akademik Shuleykin-class ice-strengthened ship, built in Finland in 1982 and originally used for oceanographic research.[5] In 1998 it was fully refurbished to serve as a research ship for Arctic and Antarctic work.[3] It was named after the Russian oceanographer Yuly Shokalsky.[6] The ship has two [7] passenger decks, with dining rooms, a bar, a library, and a sauna, and accommodates 54 passengers.[3] It is currently operated by Aurora Expeditions, an Australian expedition cruise line.[3][8] In 2011, the Akademik Shokalskiy sailed cruises along the coast of Russia[9] and to East Antarctica.[10] Her sister ships are Akademik Shuleykin, Arnold Veymer, Akademik Gamburtsev, Professor Molchanov, Professor Multanovskiy, Geolog Dmitriy Nalivkin, Professor Polshkov, Professor Khromov.
UPDATE2:
WUWT reader “pat” writes at 2013/12/26 at 1:59 pm
seems this expedition was more a BBC/Guardian/ABC CAGW exercise!
18 Dec: Guardian: The Guardian lays claim to Antarctica – in pictures Journalists Alok Jha and Laurence Topham have landed in Antarctica with the 2013 Australasian Antarctic Expedition Documentary filmmaker Laurence Topham lines up a shot from the bows. Photograph: Alok Jha/Guardian…
http://www.theguardian.com/science/antarctica-live/gallery/2013/dec/18/guardian-antarctica-pictures
Guardian: Laurence Topham, documentary filmmaker
In 2007 he worked for Current TV, where he edited over 50 short-form documentaries for terrestrial broadcast…
http://www.theguardian.com/open-weekend/laurence-topham
Guardian: Science: Antarctica live (MASSIVE COVERAGE, NO HINT ABOUT THE SHIP’S CURRENT PREDICAMENT!)
http://www.theguardian.com/science/antarctica-live
26 Dec: BBC: Andrew Luck-Baker: Science continues for trapped Australasian Antarctic expedition Science reporter Andrew Luck-Baker is on board the Russian research vessel Shokalskiy, covering the Australasian Antarctic Expedition 2013 for the BBC World Service programme Discovery…
Tantalisingly, a low band of grey sky to the Northeast suggests clear water lies not so many kilometres away. The grey colour is light reflected from open water. The early Antarctic explorers named this colour phenomenon “water sky” and used it to navigate their route through the treacherous pack ice…
In addition to the Russian crew of 22, the expedition team consists of 18 professional scientists from Australia and New Zealand, and 22 volunteer science assistants. They are members of the public, ranging in age from their 20s to their 70s. They paid to join the scientific adventure…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25519059
25 Nov: ABC Lateline: $1.5 million Australian expedition to Antarctica Professor Chris Turney from the University of NSW is mounting the largest Australian science expeditions to the Antarctic with an 85-person team to try to answer questions about how climate change in the frozen continent might be already shifting weather patterns in Australia.
ABC’s MARGOT O’NEILL: The research stakes are high. Antarctica is one of the great engines driving the world’s oceans, winds and weather, especially in Australia. But there’s ominous signs of climate change.
CHRIS TURNEY: The Southern Hemisphere westerly winds encircle Antarctica, and over the last 20 or 30 years or so, they’ve been pushing further south. Now – so actually in a way it’s almost like Antarctica’s withdrawing itself from the rest of the world…
EMMA ALBERICI: And tomorrow night, in the second part of this special report, could the British Antarctic explorer Robert Scott have lived? We look at how Professor Turney discovered that choosing the right team can be a matter of life and death.
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“Anyone have an estimate for the daily Diesel fuel burn rate for this totally useless expedition?”
That’s irrelevant, these aren’t 70 ordinary people! They are climate hero’s who work tirelessly & selflessly to publicise the FACT that CO2 is causing MASSIVE damage to the environment. These people are in the antarctic to SAVE THE WORLD, so we shouldn’t get hung up on the 5 tonnes of fuel per hour that’s being used by their ship and the icebreakers coming to save them – after all they weren’t expecting ice. For only the equivalent of driving a diesel car 1.2 million miles per day these people are SAVING THE WORLD.
Also, the 10,000+ people who went to Warsaw this year had no choice but to go from all around the world and discourage the use of fossil fuels. Same for the Qatar conference in 2012, South Africa in 2011, Cancun in 2010, Copenhagen in 2009, Bangkok in 2008, Bali in 2007, Nairobi in 2006, Montreal in 2005, Buenos Aires in 2004 – and many other smaller conferences in between. Probably less than the equivalent of 30 million miles in a diesel car per conference. So definitely worthwhile.
We should think about the carbon cost for rescuing these clowns. It might be too high.
“Kaboom says:
December 27, 2013 at 4:45 am”
As well as braking up all that ice! I mean…won’t someone think of the rotten ice?
NevenA, are you willing to give up your religion? You know, the one that depends on AGW as the driving force of Arctic sea ice losses.
The most likely cause of the increase in Antarctic sea ice is a speed up of the THC/MOC. When this current speeds up it leads to more upwelling cold water around Antarctica. The colder water is then easier to freeze. On the other side of the planet this drives more down welling water into the Arctic where it undercuts the sea ice leading to more melting. It is one of the main candidates for the cause of the bipolar seesaw.
Over multiple centuries this is likely to be the cause of things like the RWP, MWP, LIA and, of course, the modern warm period. Very long 400-500 years changes in the current either bring more cold water to the surface or less. All perfectly natural without a single thing Humans could do to change it.
Who says that the Gods don’t have a sense of humor?
There has not been a negative ice cover anomaly in the SH since November 23 2011. Unprecedented for the past 25 years.
http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/timeseries.south.anom.1979-2008
sophocles says:
December 26, 2013 at 11:15 pm
“Probably because the Arctic doesn’t have a chain of active volcanoes under the ice cap to melt it,”
While chain of volcanoes have been detected this doesn’t explain expansion of ice because of it. The Arctic is suppose to be having much melt too and yet it has not caused sea ice to increase there yet. Both regions will have freshening of the sea water and the physical mechanism is the same.The Arctic has warm oceans flowing towards it, (AMO has significant affect) yet Antarctica is cut off from warm ocean currents via the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC).
Anyway the likely explanation is simple, the sea ice is expanding because it is getting colder.
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00382-011-1143-9
“Antarctic SIE trend depends on the season, with the maximum increase occurring in autumn. If the relationship between SIC and GISS SAT trends is examined regionally, Antarctic SIC trends agree well with the local SAT trends in the most Antarctic regions. That is, Antarctic SIC and SAT show an inverse relationship: a cooling (warming) SAT trend is associated with an upward (downward) SIC trend.”
The difference between the two is that the atmosphere is what mainly affects Antarctica, but for the Arctic the ocean current has the main influence. The oceans are still warm because it takes a while to lose energy, but the atmosphere when isolated from warm ocean currents shows it cooling. Any external affects are shown in the atmosphere much quicker than those influenced by oceans.
So while Aurora Australis chugs off to rescue a stranded publicity stunt gone wrong, the ship’s actual mission to resupply Casey Station has been disrupted. And since an 800nm journey at ahead full turns so much of the ship’s fuel into gullible warming gas, they’ll probably have to abort the resup and return to Hobart once the ecotards are out.
So I wonder how much actual science and Antarctic research will be adversely impacted as a result of the incomplete resupply, or how much it will eventually cost the Australian Antarctic Division?
I agree with the number of other respondants who suggested the friends of gaia should fend for themselves, Shackleton style.
It seems they found out what the “environmental changes taking place in the south” are.
:))
BBC has pension funds heavily invested in “green” philosophy…
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/156703/8bn-BBC-eco-bias
Has to be a mistake, are we not ice free at the poles? Gore promised. 😉
Xue Long reported DIW:
http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:144.5238/centery:-66.80489/zoom:8/mmsi:412863000
No word if it is on station, or short of the mark. According to reports from the expedition vessel, the surrounding sea ice is thicker than the design capabilities of the Long.
Just a little laugh from the Guardian reporter:
“Icicles fell from the metal steps on the outside of the ship and the decks were covered in flurries of snow. As winter scenes go, you could do worse.”
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t it supposed to be summer there?
http://www.theguardian.com/science/antarctica-live/2013/dec/26/stuck-in-antarcticas-white-christmas
In the news just minutes ago it was stated that the Xue Long still had 28 km to go but wasn’t making much progress. Don’t you love it?
Erny72 says:
December 27, 2013 at 7:11 am
I agree with the number of other respondants who suggested the friends of gaia should fend for themselves, Shackleton style.
_________________________
All of us are mistake- prone and bear responsibility for our own thoughts and actions, but are all in need of forgiveness. If the passengers and crew of the afflicted vessel were presently in mortal danger, who would withhold assistance?
Perhaps all of us will be let off the hook for our next mistake.
4.30am AEDST on 28th – Chinese ice breaker Xue Long – now in sight of the MV Akademik Shokalskiy
Chinese ship breaks through ice in Antarctic rescue mission
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/27/chinese-ship-breaks-ice-antarctic-rescue-akademik-shokalskiy
Photo from the Guardian who have staffer onboard.
Fairfax Media also have a journo onboard but must be asleep.
The ABC (Australian) are way behind – pathetic.
Conspicuous by its absence is the Swedish icebreaker Oden, which until 2011 assisted this kind of self-congratulating expeditions studying “global you-know-what” in the Antarctic.
The ship was recalled on orders of the Swedish government to take up duties in the Baltic Sea. This was because there was so much more sea ice than “expected” and all available ships were needed to keep the sea lanes open.
Oh, the delicious irony.
Rob Ricket says:
December 27, 2013 at 9:19 am
Xue Long reported DIW:
http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:144.5238/centery:-66.80489/zoom:8/mmsi:412863000
______________________
How neat! Thanks for that link, which this child of the prairie had no idea about its existence.
Last reported underway at .8 knots… making them wait on their coffee.
The funny thing is the omission from the Guardian text of the following:
“Of the 57 souls on board, 22 are crewmen and 35 are passengers. The ship cruised to the site of a 1911-1914 expedition of British explorer Sir Douglas Mawson, according to Expeditions Online, a travel agency that sells tickets for the cruise”
http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/cruise-ship-spends-christmas-stuck-ice-off-antarctica-161901748–abc-news-topstories.html
ClimateForAll above says December 27, 2013 at 12:36 am
Thank you CFA for the link & very interesting lecture :”The Home of the Blizzard” by Douglas Mawson:
“The date of departure south was fixed for 4 P.M. of Saturday, December 2,”
“From Macquarie Island to Adelie Land” … “set foot on the Antarctic continent between Cape Adare and Gaussberg, ” on January the 8th.
Interesting to see that the modern ship with radar and satellite guidance got stuck in ice on half the way a hundred of years later.
Erny72 says: December 27, 2013 at 7:11 am
I know you are referring to 800 nautical miles, but “800nm” is interestingly enough a wavelength within the IR spectrum …
@ur momisugly ClimateForAll,
Thanks for the info,
So let’s get this right. This expedition was looking at what climate change has occurred since Mawson’s expedition 100 years ago?
Mawson managed to moor 500 yards off Cape Denizon in a 19th Century ship, with no modern navigation aids or ice breaking capability, but the current taxpayer funded alarmists and paid merchants of propaganda are stuck in ice 100 miles offshore?
Well I don’t deny the climate has changed. Just don’t think it’s changed in the direction these alarmists were expecting! I also think it didn’t require 1million plus in taxpayer funding and rescue resources (not to mention the risk to rescuers).
They should have stayed home for Christmas, skeptics could have told them the answer in an email for free. ; > )
And yes I know, weather isn’t climate. : )
This is kinda funny. Apparently two other icebreakers are on the way to help out. I hope that they get stuck as well. What a hoot!
http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/27/world/antarctica-ship-stuck/
RACookPE1978 says:
December 26, 2013 at 11:30 am
Oh. By the way.
At today’s rate of increase in Antarctic sea ice extents, the waters south of Cape Horn will be blocked to year-round sea traffic within 8-12 years.
………..
Strangely, a similar query was raised on the potential this year for the ice around Greenland to reach Iceland. I wonder what the effect on the thermohaline currents would be should such ice barriers form?
Ed Zuiderwijk says:
December 27, 2013 at 9:54 am
The ship was recalled on orders of the Swedish government to take up duties in the Baltic Sea. This was because there was so much more sea ice than “expected” and all available ships were needed to keep the sea lanes open.
I had some experience with winter in the Baltic: the tanker where I was engineer on had to deliver a lot of heating fuel before the port of Stockholm was closed. When we were navigating out of the Stockholm channel, we had to stop, together with several other ships, because a strong northern wind was blowing a lot of pack ice towards the south. Here the pilots descended on the ice, waiting for the pilot ship to pick them up:
http://www.ferdinand-engelbeen.be/familie/zee/zee002.jpg
Aftere a few days we were rescued by an icebreaker which turned around the different stranded ships, then leaving Stockholm in convoy after the icebreaker until managable ice was encountered:
http://www.ferdinand-engelbeen.be/familie/zee/zee008.jpg
Marvelous view over a completely frozen Baltic Sea as far as one could see…
That was February 1966, after which Stockholm port was closed for the rest of the winter. That were real winters. Maybe they are coming back now?
Xue Long underway and making 2.4 kts at last report. Course plot shows a button hook turn, which may be indicative of a course required to free the research vessel.