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.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
“Hmmm….Can’t helicopters reach them?”
I think there are about 70 climate hero’s on that ship, most helicopters have a range of a few hundred miles and only carry a handful of people. Maybe they’ll just have to wait it out until all the ice melts – the day after tomorrow.
According to CNN, the Xue Long is now also stuck on ice 6 nautical miles from the sightseeing cruise ship and is hoping the Astrolabe can help it out. The Xue Long’s captain said they’re waiting for the winds to move the ice away.
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/27/world/antarctica-ship-stuck/index.html
“Icebreaker sent to rescue ship trapped near Antarctica can’t penetrate ice”
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/12/27/icebreakers-racing-to-rescue-ship-trapped-in-ice-near-antarctica/
Perhaps they will go down in history as Climate Martyrs”
Xue Long DIW again. She made about 300 meters in three hours.
http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:144.5238/centery:-66.80489/zoom:8/mmsi:412863000
wazsah says:
December 27, 2013 at 9:46 am
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.
_________________________________________________________________________
According to the weather channel and NBC the icebreaker is not able to make it to the stranded vessel as it is now stuck in the ice. Further due to snow storms its helicopter hasn’t been able to take off.
Two more vessels are en-route, a waste of good fuel and a danger to their crews.
Like a fly trap …
Perhaps the Chinese could build a few coal powered power plants down there to warm the frozen busybodies.
Still – at least someone decided to assault Piers Morgan:
After the inevitable, costly, and under-reported rescue, I wonder if the busybodies would be interested in joining Piers in an exhibition match against the Australian pace attack?
a bit more about the letter-in-the-bottle story:
17 Dec: LaPresse.ca: Le Soleil: Un message dans une bouteille trouvé dans le Grand Nord
At the place where he was, he would have been less surprising to fall face to face with Santa Claus . Because the biologist Warwick Vincent was actually very close to the North Pole in July , when he found a bottle. A bottle in the sea? Rather a bottle in ice.
Mr. Vincent worked the scientific base of Ward Hunt Centre for Northern Studies (CEN) from Laval University . It is located northwest of the base of Alert, northern Ellesmere Island in northern Canada , North America , in short , ” north of the North.” The average temperature ? Minus 18 degrees . The nearest village , Grise Fjord (or Aujuittuq ) , 800 km to the south is the coldest inhabited place in the world.
His colleague Denis Sarrazin and he interested in microorganisms at the base of the polar ecosystem. They fall in water temperature , take samples for chemical analyzes . Helicopter on the way home on a balmy day in July – it was zero ! – They took a different path to return to the base. They fell on the valley “a little hidden” north of Ellesmere Island . They put the camera there .
” Denis began exploring near a glacier that was the end of the valley. ” Then he found a pile of rocks a little weird. “It was clear” that the rocks were stacked by humans , says Mr Vincent, who is the scientific director of the NEC. Already , it was a surprise that someone has already set foot in this valley as remote and inhospitable . The surprise would soon be tenfold : “We saw that there was a bottle. ”
A bottle with a message inside . ” It was carefully removed and started to read . It was amazing , “recalls Mr. Vincent. The message is dated July 10, 1959 . It is sort of an invitation to participate in a scientific experiment. “The message says they built this pile of rocks and the distance that separates the glacier is 168 feet [ 51 meters ] ,” says the biologist. He invited ” to whom it may concern ” to repeat the experience and pass the new data to two research centers.
Two well-known names
The message is signed by two scientists : Paul Walker, University of Ohio, and Albert Crary , the research center of Cambridge, near Boston. While reading these two names that our scientist had ” goosebumps .” The first gave his name to a mountain on the island of Ward Hunt. Following the story is a bit sad : Walker had to be evacuated urgently base one month after writing the message due to an epileptic seizure . He died at age 27, a few months later .
At the University of Ohio, ” they are fascinated ” by the discovery of two Quebecers. They are currently designing an exhibition to showcase .
Remains to contact the institution Mr. Crary . They hope to get more information on shipping time.
Another signatory, Albert Crary , is a famous American polar geophysicist , a pioneer in the field . “When I started my career pole in Antarctica, the largest laboratory in the area , the Cadillac was the lab … Crary ! “Insists Mr. Vincent. “It was amazing to see these two names there! ” Albert Crary died in 1987.
Decline of 70 meters
By their message, the scientists wanted to establish a basis of comparison for understanding the dynamics of glaciers. Do they move or melt ? There was no question of global warming at the time. MM . Vincent and Sarrazin obviously redone year , 54 years after their predecessors, to realize that the glacier had retreated 70 meters . The comparison is interesting because scientists have very little data from this period.
When such a message is found, the tradition wants it to be returned to the scene . This is what they did , writing a second message to accompany it. They of course revived the invitation.
The polar exploration is still dangerous , despite the GPS and satellite phones. ” They did not have it in the 50s , they were explorers. Their passion is an inspiration to us , “says Mr. Vincent
http://www.lapresse.ca/le-soleil/actualites/science/201312/17/01-4721867-un-message-dans-une-bouteille-trouve-dans-le-grand-nord.php
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL 30, NO. 20, 2031, doi:10.1029/2003GL017931, 2003
Break-up of the largest Arctic ice shelf and associated loss of an
epishelf lake
Derek R. Mueller and Warwick F. Vincent, Martin O. Jeffries
published 18 October 2003.
http://www.cen.ulaval.ca/warwickvincent/pdffiles/175.pdf
” SasjaL says:
December 27, 2013 at 4:06 pm
The Chinese vessel stuck …
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/27/world/antarctica-ship-stuck/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
Any other vessel can go home, before …”
from the linked article:
“The expedition to gauge the effects of climate change on the region began November 27. The second, and current leg of the trip, started December 8 and was scheduled to conclude with a return to New Zealand on January 4.”
Seems they’ve now seen the effects of climate change – it’s getting colder, and it’s SUMMER in the
Southern Hemisphere….
Kind of irritating, too, that these eco-tourists would be so presumtuous to put themselves
on the same footing (as it were) with Scott, Amundsen, Mawson, and others….geesh….
Latest reports on New Zealand National Radio are that the Chinese ice breaker has stopped 6 nautical miles from the trapped ship and is unable to proceed further. They are now waiting for assistance from two other ice breakers. Are we going to see a repeat of the Shackleton expedition when his ship “Endurance” became trapped in Antarctic ice on18 January 1915 and subsequently was crushed and sank on 21 November 1915
I don’t understand… why is that ship still stuck? Something isn’t right here… if it’s true that it’s lead by a bunch of AGW scientists, surely they have charts and graphs aboard that they can use to browbeat the ice and convince it that can’t possibly exist in that location at this time of year due to AGW – and thus free the ship?
lots of debate in the comments about the distances quoted by CBC:
16 Dec: CBC: 1959 message in a bottle a clue to glacier melt
PHOTO CAPTION: In 1959, an American geologist built a rock cairn 1.2 metres away from this glacier. This summer, the cairn was 101.5 metres away
Comment by KevinMcKinney: I emailed Dr. Vincent about the distance from the cairn to glacier question yesterday. This morning he very kindly responded. Apparently, the researchers who were there also find the note ambiguous, and are trying to get Dr. Walker’s field notebook to resolve the question with certainty.
Comment by QuebeCityOliver
@AnonymousGorf
Like the numbers in the text being totally wrong. Let’s hope CBC corrects it after this morning’s interview on Québec AM.
Comment by Happy Canadian
The measurement was written to detail the edge of glacier was 168.3 ft from the edge of the cairn, and that the glacier overhung the rock floor by about 4 feet.
So, to Canadianize these: 51.3 meters from the cairn to the glacier edge, that was about 1.2 meters above the rock floor.
Now it is 101.2 meters, a shrinkage of 50 meters in 54 years. Much less than the 100 meters in this story.
Comment by MortimerSnerd
As I read that note the distance to the glacier in 1959 was 168.3 ft. not 1.2m. The edge of the glacier was ~4ft (1.2m) from the rock floor (whatever that means). It is now 101.5m or 333 ft, roughly double not roughly 80 times.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/1959-message-in-a-bottle-a-clue-to-glacier-melt-1.2465597
***Australian Green Party senator-elect for Victoria, Janet Rice, is on board too. please explain why all the relevant facts are not being reported by Australian MSM:
27 Dec: Guardian: Alok Jha: Antarctic mission on ice as rescue ship is forced back
The Guardian’s man on the icebound vessel reports on the freezing conditions as the expedition waits for assistance
Chris Fogwill, a glaciologist at the University of New South Wales and a co-leader of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE): “We need a westerly wind to release the pressure on the pack ice in the area, or we need two icebreakers.”…
The expedition leader had reassured us earlier that this kind of venture always allowed for this kind of contingency. It would, he said, be a couple of weeks before we were reduced to dehydrated food…
The Russian-controlled Shokalskiy became trapped in heavy ice on Tuesday, when it was travelling east around Commonwealth Bay to the Mertz glacier. Strong south-easterly winds pushed the ice floes in the area towards the Antarctic coastline, forming a dense mass around the Shokalskiy. At the time, the ship was only two miles from the open water. Since then, two days of blizzards have built the ice pack around the ship further – and the edge of the ice sheet, and the open water beyond, is now between 13 and 18 nautical miles from the ship.
“It’s a bulbous shape and we’re right in the middle of it,” said Fogwill. “The nature of Antarctica is very different to the rest of the world – everything is at a bigger scale. Storms are ever present, the rate at which they shift is very unpredictable because there is so much ocean around. At the edge of the continent you have strong weather systems and the speed at which things can happen is astronomical. It’s so far outside our normal frame of reference.”…
The Xue Long discovered that the ice at the edge of the pack was much thicker than it expected – around three to four metres thick in places – and the going was slow. It reported travelling at just between 0.1 to 3 knots due to the density of the ice it encountered. Technical issues with its engines meant L’Astrolabe did not enter the ice field at all. “We know the ice conditions around us are extremely difficult and the ice is under a lot of pressure,” said Greg Mortimer, a co-leader of the AAE, aboard the Shokalskiy.
If the Xue Long had reached the Shokalskiy, it would have likely cut a ring in the ice around our ship so that our captain could manoeuvre it into the newly opened channel behind the Xue Long. “It’s quite an elaborate operation and one that takes some time,” said Mortimer…
***Speaking before the Xue Long had turned around, Janet Rice, the Green party senator-elect for Victoria, Australia, who has been on board the ship since it left New Zealand, said: “I understand why people might be concerned, but the feeling today on board the ship is like a summer holiday when the weather is bad, when you’re stuck inside reading books and playing Scrabble. We’ve been assured that we’re in no danger and it’s just a matter of waiting.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/27/antarctic-mission-icebreaker-delay-rescue
——————————————————————————–
SE winds forecasted for the next three days for Commonwealth Bay. The link from the Guardian stipulates that a West wind is required to relieve pack ice pressure.
Of course the central issue is, will they play Steely Dan’s “Danger on the Rocks” on New Year’s Eve?
From Wikipedia:
Douglas Mawson Expedition[edit]
In 1910, she was bought by Douglas Mawson for his Australasian Antarctic Expedition. The Aurora made the journey from Hobart, Australia to Macquarie Island, Mawson’s base of operations, in December 1911. After establishing the base, they sailed south again, and arrived in Commonwealth Bay Antarctica, on 7 January 1912. At Cape Denison, her crew unloaded Mawson and his team, and helped set up the camp (Mawson’s Huts), but then departed to return to Hobart so as not to get trapped in the sea-ice over the winter.
In December 1912, the Aurora returned to find that Douglas Mawson, Xavier Mertz, and Belgrave Edward Sutton Ninnis had set out on a sled expedition, and were overdue on their return. The captain attempted to wait for the expedition to return, but poor anchorage and extremely strong winds combined to cause a number of anchor chains to break. At the end of January the ship had to leave or risk getting stuck for the winter. Aurora left a team of six, including a radio operator, behind with ample supplies, and departed. Mawson, the sole survivor of the three, arrived in time to see the Aurora disappearing over the horizon. A radio call brought the Aurora back, but bad weather forced it to depart again, leaving Mawson and party behind.
Aurora returned to Commonwealth Bay on 12 December 1913, to pick up the seven men, and return to Australia.
I think it was Andrew who said in part:
“Nature consistently rewards with exceptionally freezing conditions this type of expedition, whose intention is to carry out research on GW. Hence providing many of us with a great deal of innocent merriment. Has anyone ever compiled a list of these events?”
I am enjoying the karma thing with the “watch the polar bears drown” cruises (particularly the southern contingent), but it turns out that I was concerned about wanton damage to the world ecosystem before it had become a branch of Scientology.
And I would like to see the list contemplated compiled to include such factors as “how many people were involved in the rescues? Were any of them injured? How much were they paid and who paid it?
How many barrels of fuels and lubricating oils were used, of that how much was abandoned in caches that are now polluting the seas.
I would like to see the world sea powers establish embargoes at about 60° North and South and collect from the Captain of each vessel not on a legitimate course and mission an amount of money to cover the rescue of that ship and its partiers which will be refunded, less a contribution to the embargo fleet, when they return.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11178863
Snow Dragon has abandoned any attempt, Aurora still making way to the ice pack. Possibly Sunday evening NZT the earliest arrival of Aurora.
What can one say except that it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving bunch of people.
Yep, there is a film in it – Police Academy and Airplane style.
Title – The Poseidon Adventure on Ice.
Go James.
Let me get this straight;
We have a Scientific Ship, piloted by a Scientist, who is a rabid green freak, who whole heartedly believes Al Gore’s predictions of ice free areas, While accompanied by journalists who want to push his agenda, Trapped in ice (coincidentally right where Al said it would be ice free) …..
Hallmarks of a three stooges comedy… You simply can not make this kind of comedy gold up..
I saw a picture of the climate scientists taking ice core samples to help pass the time. Can someone explain the purpose of taking ice core samples of pack ice? Thanks in advance.
I saw a picture of the climate scientists taking ice core samples to help pass the time. Can someone explain the purpose of taking ice core samples of pack ice? Thanks in advance.
Better cocktails?
We’ve been assured that we’re in no danger and it’s just a matter of waiting.
Not exactly Senator, but there isn’t much you can do about it.
The CNN report said something about the ship starting to list (tilt) in the high wind (in the ice).
Can an Icebreaker break ice in reverse?
Who’s paying the tab? The captains?
Idiots.
Seriously, all the best.
Apparently, the ships that have been sent to rescue this ice-bound ship have had to turn back. Why? Because there is too much ice for the ice-breakers!
That pesky Global Warming!