6.30am AEDT Sunday 05 January 2014
US Coast Guard ice breaker to assist ships beset in ice in Antarctica
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC Australia) has requested the US Coast Guard’s Polar Star icebreaker to assist the vessels MV Akademik Shokalskiy and Xue Long which are beset by ice in Commonwealth Bay.
The US Coast Guard has accepted this request and will make Polar Star available to assist.
The Polar Star has been en route to Antarctica since 3 December, 2013 – weeks prior to the MV Akademik Shokalskiy being beset by ice in Commonwealth Bay. The intended mission of the Polar Star is to clear a navigable shipping channel in McMurdo Sound to the National Science Foundation’s Scientific Research Station. Resupply ships use the channel to bring food, fuel and other goods to the station. The Polar Star will go on to undertake its mission once the search and rescue incident is resolved.
RCC Australia identified the Polar Star as a vessel capable of assisting the beset vessels following MV Akademik Shokalskiy being beset by ice overnight on 24 December, 2013. RCC Australia has been in discussion with the US Coast Guard this week to ascertain if the Polar Star was able to assist once it reaches Antarctica.
The request for the Polar Star to assist the beset vessels was made by RCC Australia to the US Coast Guard on 3 January, 2014. The US Coast Guard officially accepted this request and released the Polar Star to RCC Australia for search and rescue tasking at 8.30am on 4 January, 2014.
The Polar Star will leave Sydney today after taking on supplies prior to its voyage to Antarctica.
It is anticipated it will take approximately seven (7) days for the Polar Star to reach Commonwealth Bay, dependent on weather and ice conditions.
At 122 metres, the Polar Star is one of the largest ships in the US Coast Guard fleet. It has a range of 16,000 nautical miles at 18 knots. The Polar Star has a crew of 140 people.
The Polar Star is able to continuously break ice up to 1.8 metres (6ft) while travelling at three (3) knots and can break ice over six (21ft) metres thick.
RCC Australia will be in regular contact with the relevant US Coast Guard RCC at Alameda, California, and the Captain of the Polar Star during its journey to Antarctica.
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www.amsa.gov.au/media
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What’s the hurry? GW is imminent, let them wait.
This is RIGHT WING PROPAGANDA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We all know that the polar ice caps and glaciers are melting at a rapid pace.
Polar bears are drowning in record numbers and will be extinct with in the decade.
The oceans are flooding all the costal towns and cities.
The planet is drying up and soon life will cease to be evident on this planet.
You all will be begging “OWL” Gore to save you!
which USA coast is the Department of Homeland Security protecting here?
Hello J. Philip Peterson please do some research on subjects you no nothing about Dec 21 in Antarctica is the beginning of it’s summer daylight 24 hours a day, Many misinformed people on these posts! I have been there and done that. And , Please if you buy a boat take a safety course.
“Dana says:
January 6, 2014 at 5:47 am
…Dec 21 in Antarctica is the beginning of it’s summer daylight 24 hours a day…”
No it’s not!
Then how many hours of daylight and darkness?
According to WEATHER STATION US Base McMurdo Station Antarctica sunrise 0159 sunset 0159 I have been there from Dec thru March
I was wondering when they’d call the real calvary, Semper Paratus!
I might ROFL if the Polar Star gets stuck.
Antarctic Circle @ur momisugly 66.33:44 S, marks the latitude that the sun never sets on Dec 21. The South Pole is at it’s max tilt towards the Sun. Summer Solstice. This date marks the apex of the Summer, you are now losing sunlight beyond Dec. 21 in the Antarctic. Conversely you are now gaining sunlight in the Arctic.
So many more trees to plant – so little time…
Josh. says: “Let them freeze to death. Idiots.”
That’s not fair. The captain and crew of the MV Akademik Shokalskiy aren’t the reason it got stuck, it was her contingent of spoiled brat passengers pretending to be on a scientific expedition who ignored the captain’s order to get back on board quickly when he knew the ice was coming.
I hope ALL polar ship captains around the world take note of this incident and refuse service to such nitwits who are the ones who truly deserve being stuck on the ice pack watching their ride disappear over the horizon.
It has been completely ignored in most press but they were tagging along on a mission studying disappearing Antarctic ice due to global warming.
I hope the polar star can do the job required and not wind up in the same situation . I remember when I was on the USCG Eastwind we broke out 2 ships beset in the ice. one a freighter and another an icebreaker. the three years aboard we never got stuck. Good luck men of both ships, the one stuck and the one trying to rescue them .
They were on a mission investigating disappearing Antarctic ice. True.
@ur momisugly Dana says:
January 6, 2014 at 5:47 am
I believe you misread my post about Stan. I was simply telling Stan that it is summer in Antarctica, not winter. Maybe you should take a reading comprehension course.
Somehow I knew there was going to be a cost to U.S. taxpayers in all of this. Obama can call it Ice Stimulus now.
Or….Snow (shovel) Ready Stimulus spending for the good of the recovery and the children
This mission (the original one, not the 3 subsequent rescue missions) is too big to fail.
In the spirit of Gideon, I would like the Polar Star to bring them bound copies of the IPCC Fifth Working Group Report.
donbarcomejr said “The Polar Star was en route for a reapply mission. Hope that they are able to save lives. Kind of a weird coincidence that it was nearly to Sydney when it was needed.”
The Polar Star had originally been headed towards Sydney, then got diverted South towards the trapped vessels, but once the tourists had been transferred to the Aurora Australis the Polar Star did a 90 degree turn to the North West to head back up to Sydney.
If the Polar Star had remained on it’s originally diverted course to the trapped vessels it would have been nearly there by now.
Thanks! I think I read that it will be another 4-5 days before PolarStar arrives on site. I’ve been amazed at how informed/experienced a lot if the posters have been on this thread. BTW – with how MSM & governments involved continually ignore the Global Warming heart of this debacle, I’m left wondering if not sending in the Polar Star immediately was a calculated risk to try & keep a lid on this Global Warming saga?
I would like to know who made the original decision to divert south and then who decided to return to Sydney.. Many days have been lost as a result while the ice thickens.
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I would be awesome if you could point me in the direction of a
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The US Coast Guard’s Polar Star icebreaker was sent to assist the vessels MV Akademik Shokalskiy and Xue Long which are beset by ice in Commonwealth Bay, Antarctica.
There have been numerous allegations that Professor Chris Turney, leader of the formerly scientific expedition, now comprising mere tourists, until recently aboard the Akademik Shokalskiy had been thoroughly irresponsible, through engaging in behaviour which should have been obvious would subject the ship and any other who sought to render assistance, to the risk of being first trapped and then eventually sunk by thick sea ice in the Antarctic Ocean.
Professor Turney emphatically rejected these allegations and refuted them by referring to 147 computer simulations of the global climate, all endorsed by the IPCC, which proved that the Antarctic Ocean should have been ice-free, rendering entrapment of the ship, utterly scientifically impossible.
“Global warming is an inescapable reality upon which there is a 97% consensus. The earth is warming dangerously, the ice is melting and record global sea-ice does not alter this fact.”
I hate hate when reality gets in the way of “proven computer modules…” It just complicates life for so many “scientists” that are depending on fantasies that are, well, are not real…
“which proved that the Antarctic Ocean should have been ice-free, rendering entrapment of the ship, utterly scientifically impossible.”–this is hilarious!! yes, yes, utterly impossible–right!
“scientists” depending on fantasies, and basing conclusions and making decisions on flawed premises.
It is, frankly, a shame that these folks, or some of them at any rate, are teaching in Universities!
In science, a negative result is often as important as a positive result.
Professor Turley has established to a great degree of certainty, that “Trenberth’s missing heat” is not hiding in the Antarctic Ocean.
The continuing search for the missing heat may safely proceed somewhere else.
Hot air? Try Al Gore. I think he is holding all of it.
Dana says:
January 6, 2014 at 6:18 am
Then how many hours of daylight and darkness?
It of course depends on the latitude. At the polar circle (66,55 degrees south) there is just one day with midninght sun – December 21 and one with no sun at all – June 21. Further south the number of each increases until at the pole there is in principle 182,5 of each.
This is of course a bit simplified since summer and winter solstices move a little between years, and the sun is a disc not a point, the horizon is not absolutely flat and refraction means that the sun is actually visible when it is slightly below the geometric horizon.
In any case December 21 is astronomical midsummer in Antarctica. The climate lags a bit, so ice is usually at it’s lowest around February 20.
I think we the usa should do every thing possible to rescue the ships and people. to not do so would be against allbeliefs of the american way. we have they very cappable ice breakers, and crew experiance to take on this job. as far as the russians taking the job, they are to far away, and cannot operate thru warmer waters with their nuke ships. the united states coast guard people and ships have helped ships and their crews of all nations for many many years, why stop now, because of afew hundred bucks. hooooooorey for for the uscg. John kelley
I agree we should help them, and then send them a bill for services rendered. Why allow a boat full of idiots that did not use common sense take American taxpayers money with no consequences?