This will be a top “sticky” post for awhile since interest is high – new stories will appear below this one – Anthony
UPDATE: Josh channels the boat people
UPDATE2: Another irony is discovered, this one doubly deep. See update 2 below.
UPDATE4: AMSA: Helicopter rescue of Akademik Shokalskiy likely to commence shortly
(It’s off again, then now its on again, with report the helicopter has landed)
UPDATE5: All the passengers (tourists and scientists) are off the ship
UPDATE6: Tough questions need to be asked
UPDATE7: Trouble on the rescue ship – reaching open water not so easy
As we reported previously on WUWT here and here, the saga of the “climate scientists/tourists trapped in ice” continues to fascinate many. Now a second ship has given up on rescue, after the Chinese ship “Snow Dragon” gave up two days ago. The Aurora Australis has abandoned rescue of the trapped Russian “research”vessel in Antarctica and a helicopter evacuation in now being ordered. This episode has taken on a heightened comedic fiasco-like quality.
Now, with such a fantastic failure in full world view, questions are going to start being asked. For example, with advanced tools at their disposal (that Mawson never had) such as near real-time satellite imaging of Antarctic sea ice, GPS navigation, on-board Internet, radar, and satellite communications, one wonders how these folks managed to get themselves stuck at all. Was it simple incompetence of ignoring the signs and data at their disposal combined with “full steam ahead” fever? Even the captain of the Aurora Australis had the good sense to turn back knowing he’d reached the limits of the ship on his rescue attempt. Or, was it some sort of publicity stunt to draw attention? If it was the latter, it has backfired mightily.
One might argue that with photos like the one below, this whole “Spirit of Mawson” research expedition, is little more than a media stunt.
Source: [ http://twitter.com/GdnAntarctica/status/412977161323036672 ]
Even after the ship was trapped, these reporters still had a party like atmosphere going on:
Source: [ http://twitter.com/GdnAntarctica/status/416881634273525761/photo/1 ]
Yesterday, Andrew Revkin tweeted something that I agreed with, especially since so many of the people trapped in the ice on the ship seem to have a nonchalant, almost partly-like atmosphere going on.
Scientist on trapped Antarctic ship: "Fantastic-I love it when the ice wins & we don't." http://t.co/UsxA2tiV2i What about rescue risk/cost?
— Andrew Revkin 🌎 ✍🏼 🪕 ☮️ (@Revkin) December 29, 2013
Yes, the cost and risk is significant. These folks trapped on-board don’t seem to be cognizant of that issue, following the #spiritofmawson Twitter feed, it’s like watching reports (with pictures and video) from a high school class party.
And here’s the kicker. Even the public saw through the charade at the beginning. Trying to get crowd funding from the public for this trip failed miserably as this Indigogo campaign shows:
Source: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-us-return-to-mawson-s-antarctic-hut-the-home-of-the-blizzard
Maybe it had to do with the ridiculous image of Professor Chris Turney in full cold weather gear standing in the midst of a tropical forest.
Right after the ship got stuck and there was a realization that the world was watching, one scientist on-board, Dr. Chris Fogwill, of the University of New South Wales, decided that it would be an opportune time to hit the public for money again:
Source: http://www.spiritofmawson.com/
And again, the public has seen through this, and today, the campaign remains stuck at $1000 with just a few donors. People are realizing that there’s no real science being done on this trip, and that it seems to be little more than a chartered party boat for Antarctic enthusiasts and media.
Now, with the ship to be evacuated via helicopter, will the Akademik Shokalskiy join the list of recent ships that have been sunk in Antarctic waters?
Ships that have sunk in Antarctic waters in recent years (h/t to David Archibald)
The Brazilian yacht “Endless Sea” sank in Maxwell Bay, Ardley Cove on Saturday 7th April, 2012. It was used for “scientific and educational expeditions”.
The sunken remains of the 76-ft Mar Sem Fin, aka “Endless Sea”, which sunk on April 7, 2012, lies at a depth of about 9 meters (30 ft) in Ardley Cove, Antarctica.
In November 2007, the Linblad Explorer hit sea ice and sank.
In April 2013, the Chinese factory fishing ship Kai Xin caught fire and sank near Bransfield Strait at the Antarctic Peninsula.
And there are others, these are just a few recent ones.
With so much concern for the pristine environment of Antarctica, one wonders how much environmental damage these sinkings are doing.
And when the trip is nothing more than a party for your friends and media, disguised as a “scientific expedition”, one wonders if there shouldn’t be some moratorium on such trips.
Richard Tol summed it all up nicely with one sentence:
There has been a strong and statistically significant upward trend in climate-change-related public-relations disasters #spiritofmawson
— Richard Tol (@RichardTol) December 30, 2013
UPDATE:
The #spiritofmawson hashtag is now getting competition from the hashtag #ClitanicDisaster in honor of the trapped climate scientists that the MSM won’t mention as being climate scientists.
========================================================
UPDATE 2:
reader Aphan writes on 2013/12/31 at 7:16 pm
I don’t know if anyone was posted this yet, but the IRONY just gobsmacked me.
The British “explorers” on board the MV Explorer who were “commemorating the Spirit of Shackleton” found themselves repeating HIS adventure when their ship struck a piece of submerged ice and then SANK in the Antarctic in November of 2007! None of the passengers or crew were lost. But HOW AMAZING is it that both the “Spirit of Mawson” trip AND the “Spirit of Shackleton” cruise trips ended in disaster from sea ice?????
http://www.jamescairdsociety.com/shackleton-news-104519.htm
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/news/explorer-sinks-antarctica.html
I mean…come on. What are the odds?
============================================================
Related articles
- Saving the Antarctic scientists, er media, er, activists, er tourists trapped by sea ice (wattsupwiththat.com)
- Antarctic rescue mission fails to reach trapped ship (theguardian.com)
Justa said:
“Wasn’t this guy some cAGW honcho the Australian govt?”
Yes, but he was quickly sacked by the new government – one of the things they have done properly. He predicted that the rain would no longer fill the dams. They filled and overflowed. Flannery had a part in the unnecessarily devastation caused by the flooding. His predictions caused the dam operators not to release water till it was too late. He is also responsible for the decision to build very expensive desalination plants, which are now mothballed.
Great links Gail, thanks I especially loved the part about – we are quietly confident of successful …. indeed! Guess they’ll be re-doing January’s bookings of this ship’s schedule right about now.
cynical_scientist says: @ur momisugly December 31, 2013 at 5:46 pm
….The ship almost certainly WAS trapped by older multiyear ice which broke free somewhere else, was blown by the wind to block them in, and then refroze in place around the ship. Turney is quite correct to offer this explanation and does not deserve ridicule for it. Those who seem to think several metres of sea ice suddenly just froze around the ship need to check the temperatures in the area.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
It is the IRONY we are laughing at.
Remember we have been hearing for years how the multi-year ice in the Arctic is all disappearing and all the ice is first year ice. We have also been hearing how the sea ice is all melting in the Antarctic too. Now Turney turns around and reverses that manta to claim It were multi-year ice what done us in Guv.
@ur momisugly Gail Combs:
The Captain of the vessel is in command; Chris Turney is just the charter customer. The Captain is answerable to the owners and not the paying passengers. The insurance company has a contract with the owners and the Captain is responsible for holding up the owners’ side of that contract.
If the actions of the chartering party interfered with the Captain’s directives then the owners (or their insurers) would have grounds for a counter-claim; I don’t know what assets there are to go after however. But this is all speculation as I haven’t seen reported any detailed account of the circumstances leading up to their current predicament. If the vessel is abandoned and lost this will all come out in the inquest.
I know many readers/contributers at WUWT have a low opinion of climate researchers but I really can’t imagine that Chris Turney would ignore the Captain giving a firm order that the vessel will be under way to clear the ice in 10 minutes and any gear not back onboard in that time will be abandoned. And I really can’t imagine any experienced Captain putting up with a charter customer who would ignore such an order, regardless of how many Facebook “likes” he had.
My own view (totally unsupported by anything reported to date) is simply that they were operating at the very limits of marginal conditions where even experts can get surprised. One could say we shouldn’t let tourists take part in research trips to severely hostile locations, but we’re allowing Richard Branson to solicit paying passengers for trips to space, so what’s the difference? I’ll bet all those scientists/passengers signed waivers and indemnity agreements which leave them no basis to complain.
The real issue for me is the extent to which a single Antarctic research/tourist expedition getting in trouble can commandeer limited rescue resources and thereby disrupt other planned research. I suspect when all is accounted for, the Spirit of Mawson expedition will have conducted net negative research.
The one thing we can be certain of is the lawyers will make money on this.
Gail Combs says:
December 31, 2013 at 5:50 pm
. . . In the end it does not matter, The Christmas Turkey will be Persona Non Grata and his career is finished. The other research teams are NOT going to forgive him. Unfortunately the innocent will get punished too.
—————————————————————————–
More likely, he will go on tour to tell how he was done in by climate change and he will later get larger grants for a new expedition.
Gail Combs says:
December 31, 2013 at 6:18 pm
Well, Gail, as per your advertisement for this cruise from Expeditions Online….
“Extended period in the Commonwealth Bay, East Antarctic coastline area.”
Refreshingly honest for this lot I would say.
cynical_scientist says:
December 31, 2013 at 5:46 pm
“I enjoy a laugh as much as the next person. But some of these comments are going a little too far. Let’s not overstep the mark here.”
We’re not laughing -we’re mocking and justly so – comments going to far are on other sites but not here. MODS here have been outstanding on this endeavor.
“The ship almost certainly WAS trapped by older multiyear ice which broke free somewhere else, was blown by the wind to block them in, and then refroze in place around the ship. Turney is quite correct to offer this explanation and does not deserve ridicule for it. Those who seem to think several metres of sea ice suddenly just froze around the ship need to check the temperatures in the area.”
You have no more of proof that’s this years ice, last year’s ice or the ice from the year before that…
and what difference at this point does it make? They were suppose to be the ‘smart’ people and yet they couldn’t figure out that wind blows ice around? Satellites show where the ice is. Oodles of information on wind is easily available to anyone with a computer/phone.
I don’t think that they’ll die there, least I hope not, but I do hope they get very uncomfortably delayed to the point they crave to be on dry unfrozen land with fresh bananas, out of their non-crusty under garments and never wanting ice in their beverages for a long time to come.
I also hope that no one DIES rescuing these happily partying “smart” people …
Do hope you fans of this excursion are starting to raise funds for this “little” misadventure as we’re all tapped out from the forced carbon taxes on the very power we need to warm our homes and cook our meals for our families sustenance.
P.S. Don’t you find it at all ironic that you can openly speak your mind here but I/we here, can’t on any CAGW pushing sites, like the Guardian or BBC?
*edit, non-crusty should read, crusty.
Wow. Even Dot Earth at NYT admits these guys are interfering with what NYT calls real science.
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/31/rescue-effort-for-trapped-antarctic-voyage-disrupts-serious-science/?smid=tw-share&_r=1&
cynical_scientist says:
December 31, 2013 at 5:46 pm
I enjoy a laugh as much as the next person. But some of these comments are going a little too far. Let’s not overstep the mark here.
The ship almost certainly WAS trapped by older multiyear ice which broke free somewhere else, was blown by the wind to block them in, and then refroze in place around the ship.
The ice has been there all winter/fall/summer. I’ve been watching the sea ice and it has been slowly receding. However, the rate is much slower than previous years. Some of that is because the ice from previous years did not melt and some of it is due to colder water. However, the ice has been in the general area for a long time with the normal wind blown drifting moving it around. It had to be a very dangerous place when they approached the ice pack. Although open areas no doubt existed (and still do), the ice wasn’t hiding.
The rats are beginning to abandon the sinking ship.
I don’t know if anyone was posted this yet, but the IRONY just gobsmacked me.
The British “explorers” on board the MV Explorer who were “commemorating the Spirit of Shackleton” found themselves repeating HIS adventure when their ship struck a piece of submerged ice and then SANK in the Antarctic in November of 2007! None of the passengers or crew were lost. But HOW AMAZING is it that both the “Spirit of Mawson” trip AND the “Spirit of Shackleton” cruise trips ended in disaster from sea ice?????
http://www.jamescairdsociety.com/shackleton-news-104519.htm
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/news/explorer-sinks-antarctica.html
I mean…come on. What are the odds?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11180231
Xue Long not trapped, manoeuvring through ice, but not attempting to reach Akademie
Total fiasco.
“The ship almost certainly WAS trapped by older multiyear ice which broke free somewhere else, was blown by the wind to block them in, and then refroze in place around the ship. Turney is quite correct to offer this explanation and does not deserve ridicule for it.”
agreed. thanks for the perspective..
Aphan says: (December 31, 2013 at 7:16 pm)
Amazing! I can hardly wait for someone to propose recreating the Donner Expedition.
@Aphan
Now that is ironic.
The captain of the Shokalsky is Igor Kiselyov, I’m assuming from his name that he (and the crew) came with the charter of the ship.
The captain and only the captain can be held held responsible if the ship becoming trapped was a result of human error.
How odd, just when suspiciously troll like comments start to crop up; along comes somebody who truly espouses the warmista methods.
Shame on you for even thinking any real humans share in such distressingly poor jocularity! Go back to RC or Penn State.
I may not disagree with the comments too far statement, but you leave me baffled by the followup multiyear ice statement which I suppose is to lessen the image of sheer stupidity on display near Antarctica.
Did that sneaky old ice creep up in the darkness (at Antarctica in the summer!?) and surround them while they snoozed or played shufflegraph or whatever the CAGW faithful do when they’re having a good time. No, it was there and they cruised right into it.
Tell you what, let’s wait till various marine authorities finish their investigations and the results get published. Then we should get a good idea just why an Antarctica experienced ship captain decided to sail into heavy sea ice conditions.
[Rant][Rhetorical]
Multi-year ice, new ice, wet ice, dry ice.
Blah Blah Blah.
Somebody get me a bullshit meter for all the crap Turney is churning out.
This warmist is in more denial than a drunk in a dumpster.
Maybe because it’s the dimwitted hand-picked team he took with him.
Somebody freaking tell me why Leticia Lentini – Events and Branding Marketing Manager for Google Australia and New Zealand is part of the science team for this fiasco.
WTF is she going to do, She must be running around the ice, stamping Google Doodles on the penguins.
Then we got Jonathan Palmer – Dendrologist on board.He is said to be leading the tree ring dating. Oh yeah. Is this some kind of joke. Tree rings in the Antarctic. No, tell me it isn’t so. Maybe hes starting some kind of new mating ritual Gather around the flotsam and either correctly count its rings, or ask Leticia for a lil kisseepoo.
Oh the travesty.
If you ask me, I think they should have brought their shore based operation with them.
Andy Baker – Environmental Monitor. now there is a guy they would have loved to had on board.
He could have monitored the direction of the ship into the Green.
Then lastly, the 3-headed Hydra. The trio of modellers.Matthew England, Nick Golledge, and Stephanie Waterman. Maybe they could have simple made the multi-year ice simply vanish with their years of modelling oceans and ice sheets and climate. Oh my !
Turney, youre a nutjob. First you got no sense to stand up and announce to the world what you were doing there. You have kept mum and have allowed MSM call you a ‘tourist’, and picked a tree-ring counter and a advertising marketer as part of your science team, probably leaving your best science team behind, whom could have help you avoid this whole fiasco.
My god, you can’t make this up.
/rant /rhetoric
A Dendrologist on a “scientific” exhibition to Antarctica? There was a whole thread recently about what is a scientist, yet, somehow, nobody got so far afield as to even imagine a dendrologist going to do science in Antarctica. What’s next? Drilling for ice cores in the Amazon? Honestly, you can’t make this stuff up.
Perhaps they were playing Hide the decline or Hide the Increase in SH Ice.
“The ship almost certainly WAS trapped by older multiyear ice which broke free somewhere else, was blown by the wind to block them in, and then refroze in place around the ship. Turney is quite correct to offer this explanation and does not deserve ridicule for it. ” – C.S.
Turney attributed his entrapment to “climate change.” Do you believe that one too? Secondly nobody really cares or made any issue about the origin of the ice. Only whacked out AGW freaks would think that the age of the ice holds some kind of pro-AGW significance. The master-mind of these ice follies is very much a candidate for ridicule.
Andrew W says:
December 31, 2013 at 7:42 pm
The captain of the Shokalsky is Igor Kiselyov, I’m assuming from his name that he (and the crew) came with the charter of the ship.
The captain and only the captain can be held held responsible if the ship becoming trapped was a result of human error.
Maybe he was also brainwashed by this Climatechage/Globalwarming religion?
Looking out to sea and chanting the mantra “there is no ice, there is no ice” because CAGW says so ! Or maybe group mentality caught him? : “Do you see the ice ? Noo, what ice? Just surface stuff, models say no ice”
SST animation for the south polar region for the last 30 days:
http://www.moyhu.blogspot.com.au/p/sst-regional-movies-as-described-here-i.html?WxK=5