It looks like the “rescued” climate scientists, journalists, and tourists will have to wait on-board the Aurora Australis awhile longer while this episode plays out. There is still a lot of ice ahead according to the webcam on Aurora Australis (seen below) which had been slowed to a crawl, making only 1/4 knot.
![A140030701A[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/a140030701a1.jpg?quality=83)
Press release: 4.30pm AEDT Friday 03 January 2014
Aurora Australis on standby as a precautionary measure
Xue Long notified AMSA at 1pm AEDT this afternoon it has concerns about their ability to move through heavy ice in the area.
The Aurora Australis has been placed on standby by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s (AMSA) Rescue Coordination Centre Australia (RCC Australia) to remain in open water in the area as a precautionary measure.
The Xue Long has advised RCC Australia that it will attempt to manoeuvre through the ice when tidal conditions are most suitable during the early hours of 4 January 2014.
There is no immediate danger to personnel on board the Xue Long.
www.amsa.gov.au/media
Source: http://www.amsa.gov.au/media/documents/030114UpdateAntartica.pdf
==============================================================
Meanwhile, the beginning of this domino effect has been traced back to a sightseeing expedition by the passengers of the Akademik Shokalskiy that spent too much time getting back on the ship.
Andyj says:
January 3, 2014 at 2:11 am
Yes, the video was very nauseous. Especially the end when Mawson’s relative says he would be proud of them. I wonder if they are going to ask her opinion on the “expedition” / fiasco now.
Turney should come clean and show the world just what real science the expedition did in between all that knot-tying, learning languages and yoga the various blogs/photos and videos showed.
At some point even this may become a vaguely “scientific” mission as the reality of being stuck in (and seeing nothing but) ice will start to raise the question “maybe we were wrong about GW”.
They certainly have got the message out there that there is a lot of ice this year. Which is great for polar bears and stuff. Remember “it’s not just man that uses frozen water” Thanks scientists. Thants 😀 (relevant link below)
tty:
You are right.
The owners are apparently “Far Easternn Research” with a Registered Office in Vladivostok.
However looking further the Company is called “The Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monotoring”, registered in 1996, owns a fleet of 14 vessels and is regestered as being “federal property”.
I view of this I would guess that the company is fully insured, and that a full Russian marine inquiry board will take place in due course. The maritime lawyers will make a killing.
Whether we ever get to see the findings of the inquiry is another matter.
The University of New South Wales will be in the firing line here for the costs. If Turney was on his annual leave they are his employer and are under Australian law vicariously liable for his negligence. Unless of course they wish to argue a defence to vicarious liability – that he was on a frolic of his own. This will be inbteresting because UNSW is a lavishly state funded incubator for global warming hegemony. Will they put their money where their mouthpiece is? Heroically skating on ice that is not at all thin?
Typo: “Eastern” , only one “n”.
In Marxist Ecology, missing ice finds you.
Is this a case of one entrapment to another. Oh boy! It ain’t over yet I see.
“It is starting to look less like a typical guardian sub’s mistake than a deliberate attempt to deceive.”
As the main progressive rag of the UK, I would tend to believe in deception over incompetence at the Guardian. They have been at the center of the cAGW scam for a long time now.
Oldseadog says:
“You are right.”
Since I have spent several very happy weeks cruising in the subarctic and subantarctic aboard two sister ships of the Shokalskiy, I checked who owned these ships and whether they were seaworthy and solidly crewed and maintained before signing on. They are, but they are no icebreakers as Turney et al. has now demonstrated.
Incidentally they hold fairly solid safety briefings at the beginning of cruises. One of the things covered is that if you get a recall signal, when on shore or off on a Zodiac cruise, You drop whatever You are doing at once and return to the ship as fast as possible.
According to the AMSA Representative (via Associated Press interview over satellite phone) “the cost of the rescue would be carried by the owners of the ships” (note plural) “and their insurers, in accordance with international conventions on sea rescues,”
“Any official inquiry into how the ship got stuck would have to be conducted by Russia”, he said.
And if the AA gets stuck and requires a rescue, Australia will be conducting the inquiry.
Irony to the power of two.
Mods.
And yet another one hits the moderation bucket.
The comment section rules say that one can not change his “handle” otherwise I would try that to see if it is just my name that causes 6 or 7 in a row to go to the spam filter. Oh well, Monday restarts the school year and I will not have time to make many comments anyway.
This is a test of the comment area to see if signing in using Twitter rather than wordpress will stop every comment I make from being sent to the moderation jail or spam bucket.
Of course since I mention both wordpress and twitter this is not a totally clean test. But then I don’t have time to write a computer model which we all know is much better than real world data, just ask a “climatologist”.
I hope someone deletes this as soon as they see it as it adds nothing to this comment thread. I repeat, this is only a test.
[For testing then, use the WUWT “Test” thread. See the link from the WUWT home page. Mod]
AMSA’s view of the cost of the rescue doesnt consider the possibility that the insurer/s may seek to recover from Turney abd his employer their loss due to his negligence. Presumably he or the UNSW had contract with the ship’s owners. I doubt that contract would not have a clause requiring Turney to act responsibly.
Always look on the bright side. Remember Santa and his elves in distress http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wr2LCTdIzd4?
Interestingly quite a few people have apparently been “following in Mawson’s footsteps” and visiting (and trying to maintain) his hut over the years. However this has apparently ceased in the last few years due to the deteriorating ice situation:
http://www.mawsons-huts.org.au/conservation/
(Note the many photos showing open water in Commonwealth Bay)
The telegraph in the UK have an article about the adventure.
” one of the aims of the expedition was to track how quickly the Antarctic’s sea ice was supposedly disappearing”
It would appear, according to this, http://www.bees.unsw.edu.au/expedition-retraces-mawsons-footsteps-0 , this expedition was privately funded. I take that to mean the Oz taxpayers will not have to foot the bill?
But Turkey apparently asked, “Is that an order, sir?” and got the captain to back down into making it a request. So who’s to blame?
There are lots of ways to argue this. Lawyers will be in their element.
I’m buying more shares in Laughing Stock.
Is there a “black box” type voice recorder on the ship? There seems to be plenty of web-cams.
Oldseadog says: @ur momisugly January 3, 2014 at 3:01 am
…. that a full Russian marine inquiry board will take place in due course. The maritime lawyers will make a killing.
Whether we ever get to see the findings of the inquiry is another matter.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Oh we will via Voice of Russia and Pravda. Spin this right and you have the heroic Captain and crew who stayed with the ship that was put in jeopardy by idiot western dilettantes.
It is propaganda fodder on a golden plate.
Anything to promote the introduction of the Carbon Tax:
http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2014/01/03/professor-stuck-in-antarctic-ice-on-multi-million-dollar-taxpayer-funded-boondoggle-supports-carbon-tax/
Is that Chris(tmas) Turkey I smell roasting in the freezer?
I suspect that the Polar Star will be needed or maybe an Aircraft Carrier, something that can get close, and can handle more than 1 helicopter at a time.
For some fun, a sub thread where post on “What would Yogi Beara the NY Yankee Catcher say.” on this cluster bomb mess can be put up.
“Looks like they where Iced in before they were Iced in.” or some such.
We can joke on them a bit but if things do not change with the fate of the wind changing for them it will get worse once more.
The ice, the cold, the wind, the climate ,,, none of those things know or care of these guys even existing.
May the hilarity, contempt and derision continue indefinitely
http://youtu.be/B84O9k1ZX4g
Enjoy, my friends!