Remember this? The ill-fated “Spirit of Mawson” expedition to Antarctica (in the Akademik Shokalskiy) that set out to bring attention to “global warming” only to be trapped in ice?
It’s deja vu all over again. (with h/t to Yogi Berra)
We have another winner! This time in the Arctic.
A few weeks ago I covered this:
Student propaganda cruise to the Arctic to be carried by webcast
From August 23 to Sept. 13, the University of Rhode Island’s Inner Space Center (ISC), with major funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation and additional support from the Heising-Simons Foundation, will conduct the innovative Northwest Passage Project research expedition with a team of natural and social scientists, students, and a professional film crew. This ground-breaking opportunity is also supported by One Ocean Expeditions as a key marine partner, having operated in Arctic waters for over 20 years.
Research to aid understanding of / document climate change effects
Aboard the Akademik Ioffe, the team will collect water, ice, and air samples to advance understanding of and document the effect climate change is having on the environment and biodiversity in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.
…
The expedition team will engage a wide public audience through an extensive and unprecedented Internet presence from the area, including Facebook Live broadcasts from sea. Special interactive broadcasts will be beamed via the Inner Space Center (ISC), the U.S. facility that supports ocean exploration and education, to three prestigious science museums across the country – the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC, the Exploratorium, San Francisco CA, and the Alaska SeaLife Center, Seward AK.
Then predictably, this happened according to the Facebook page of the tour company, One Ocean Expeditions Inner Space Center:
On the morning of August 24th, the Akademik Ioffe — the vessel carrying the participants of the National Science Foundation funded Northwest Passage Project being conducted by the University of Rhode Island — became grounded in the western Gulf of Boothia in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The ship has since been re-floated, and following a full and successful systems check the vessel has repositioned to anchor. We are happy to report that all passengers, including all Northwest Passage Project participants, are safe and are being well cared for. We will provide updates as we resolve the situation.
Then the Canadian Coast Guard service had this to say:
Good morning, Due to heavier than normal ice concentrations in the Canadian arctic waters north of 70 degrees, the Canadian Coast Guard, recommends that pleasure craft do not navigate in the Beaufort Sea, Barrow, Peel Sound, Franklin Strait and Prince Regent. CCG icebreakers cannot safely escort pleasure craft. Operators of pleasure craft considering a northwest passage should also consider the risk of having to winter in a safe haven in the Arctic, or in the case of an emergency, be evacuated from beset vessels. Safety of mariners is our primary concern. REGARDS, NORDREG CANADA 181256UTC\LR
And then, comes the familiar evacuation plan:
25 Aug 2018 – KUGAARUK, Nunavut – Cpl. Serge Yelle of the RCMP detachment says he expects between 80 and 90 of the passengers will fly from the remote Arctic coastline community back to Yellowknife.
The Transportation Safety Board is considering whether it will send investigators to the site.
A board spokesman says the ship has suffered some damage.
On its website, the tour operator – One Ocean Expeditions – describes the 117-metre Akademik Ioffe as a “modern, comfortable, safe and ice-strengthened” vessel that can host 96 passengers and 65 staff and crew.
Passengers on grounded Arctic cruise ship to be flown back to Yellowknife
It seems global warming zealots are condemned to repeat the past, over and over again.
Of course, despite their claims of “unprecedented Internet presence from the area” not a word of any of this on the official project page. The last entry was on August 22nd headlined: Getting there is half the fun
If only they’d checked first…per the Canadian Coast Guard report, sea ice volume is above normal, according to DMI:
Extent remains a bit below normal:
NOTE: About 15 minutes after publication, the title was changed from “stuck” to “grounded” to be more in-tune with news reports. However, since we so far have no photos of the grounding, we don’t know if it was a grounding by ice, or by land to avoid ice. Either way, since the ship is now damaged, the expedition is a bust.
So, just to get a perspective on how costly this debacle is:
(1) 80 – 90 passengers and their gear are flown up to the cruise ship departure site in the Arctic circle.
(2) The cruise ship “runs aground” in the sea ice.
(3) Passengers are evacuated to a another ship (what’s the cost to deploy this vessel?) since the original vessel is damaged.
(4) Passengers and gear are flown back to Yellowknife, NW Territory, CA.
(5) Somehow, all these folks will have to find a flight back home.
I’m thinking the costs for rescue and transportation may well run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
I’m happy that everyone on the “expedition” is safe. But clearly whoever organized this trip really dropped the ball and not only squandered private and public funds but also put peoples’ lives in danger.
When ignoring the Coast Guard warning, then getting into trouble and needing help, it is more than likely that “they” will have to pay for the help. From the CBC:
“The Canadian Coast Guard tweeted on Friday afternoon that CCGS Pierre Radisson and CCGS Amundsen are on the way to assist the ship.
A number of Royal Canadian Air Force aircraft have also been dispatched to the ship, including two Hercules planes and two Comorant helicopters with extra crews, as well as helicopters on board the Coast Guard icebreakers.”
None of that stuff comes cheap. If they don’t have to pay for it, we (the Canadian taxpayers) will.
While I have no difficulty in providing help to those in genuine need, these wealthy folks had better be prepared to reimburse the Canadian taxpayer for this nonsense.
https://globalnews.ca/news/4409872/grounded-arctic-cruise-ship-passengers/
“with a team of natural and social scientists,” What are the “Social Scientists” for? Is it to help the participants with Separation Anxiety? Fear of Failure? or crafting the PR propaganda?
The use of the term “social scientists” is to promote the idea that sociologists are, in fact, scientists. I believe we should all start naming the specialty craft being practised by the one being recognised. “Scientist” is now being used as a replacement for the term “cleric” with its assumptions of piety, honesty and steadfastness. It would be much better if the news outlets reported that a group of sociologists, geographers and philosophy students went on an Arctic adventure voyage, rather than referring to all of them as “scientists”.
Building billions of dollars worth of desalination plants on the advice of an Australian mammologist instead of a professional weather forecaster is one good example of ignoble cause corruption.
‘Scientologist’ is already taken I believe.
Two religions are going to argue over who gets to use that term?
“Scientist” is now being used as a replacement for the term “cleric” with its assumptions of piety, honesty and steadfastness
of child abuse.
To experiment socialisation?
Speculating in advance of the data may be better that making the data up, the way the natural climate change deniers do, but it is still not scientific behaviour.
So I think we should wait for more information, not lower ourselves towards the nature deniers level.
As sea level rises, does the probability of running aground go down?
Gosh science is so important. Science! Science! Once I was blind but now I see, because science. Science is never wrong. You can rely on science. Science is better than God!
Maybe these tourists can sue the cruise line for breach of contract?
CBC reports “grounded” but there is a strong possibility that ships captains do not “run aground” unless they are taking chances while getting away from thick ice. There is no reason for a modern 300 ft ship to be running close to the grounding limit.
Believe it or not, captains of ships in the Arctic are not novices and don’t take chances when not absolutely necessary. Reading the log will be interesting.
Is there a GPS link running in real time with this “internet connected” fun run? I would like to see what the ship was doing and had been doing, exactly, when this mishap took place. I heard about this trip a while ago and was recently thinking they would have to be “taking measures” to avoid the ice this year. It seems they did something like that.
The passengers should pine for earlier, more clement times: it has been 800 years since it was possible to sail around Greenland, and probably 5000 years since the NW Passage was open long enough to get through without really worrying.
I hope they saw lots of polar bears which are running rampant these days. On the Polar Bear FB page there is a comment about humans sending 95 “food packages”. It got more than 300 *Likes*.
Gary Larsen pictured on a polar bear listening to another leaning over an igloo with the top bashed in, “I just love these! Crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.” The other polar bear replied, “Low fat too! They’re brainless!”
“Reading the log will be interesting.”
I read an account of someone’s experiences on a ship. He said that logs were worded carefully so that insurance companies couldn’t cite them to deny a claim. For instance, he said that if the weather was fine and visibility was great, this was not entered in the log, or wasn’t stated plainly, in case they ship had a misadventure, in which case the crew could say it was hazy or windy.
I tried using http://www.marinetraffic.com it has the ship in the database and states it is currently “out of range” Usually ships positions are updated on a time scale of minutes.
Looks like the ship only managed about 24 hours before the debacle. Personal view, rent seeking people like this group should be prosecuted to return the funds to the public purse.
Crispin wrote, “On the Polar Bear FB page there is a comment about humans sending 95 ‘food packages’. It got more than 300 *Likes*.”
Link, please?
Only to be expected from “Those for whom truth is what we say it is.”
One of these geniuses is wearing flip flops!
It”s summer and he”s on the beach.
So why not?
They are about 110 years too late….
THE NORTH WEST PASSAGE BEING THE RECORD OF A VOYAGE OF EXPLORATION OF THE SHIP “GJOA” 1903 – 1907 BY ROALD AMUNDSEN http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/IPY/ipy_009_pdf/G6501903A71908v1.pdf
“We encountered no ice with the exception of a few narrow strips of old sound ice, carried by the wash. Of large Polar ice we saw absolutely nothing.
Between the ice and the land, on either side, there were large and perfectly clear channels, through which we passed easily and unimpeded.
The entire accumulation of ice was not very extensive. We were soon out again in open water. Outside the promontories, some pieces of ice had accumulated; otherwise the sea was free from ice. The water to the south was open, the impenetrable wall of ice was not there.
Captain Knowles reports the season the most open he has ever known. He entered the Arctic on the day we left San Francisco, May 22, and thinks the straits were open even earlier than that.”
History?
You’re introducing actual history into a “contemporary science” article?
Blasphemy! Heresy!
First, the captain you are quoting is white. Strike one. Second, he is dead. Strike 2. Third, shut up.
The Swedish Ice-breaker Oden also have reported more ice than expected this summer. Their aim was the North Pole but had to surrender to the ice, with 5 nautical miles to go.
Link, in English:
https://polarforskningsportalen.se/en/arctic/expeditions/arctic-ocean-2018
That’s the same Oden that a decade ago was recalled from Antarctica, where it was studying the ‘vanishing ice’ that was there in abundance, because its services were needed in the Baltic where they hadn’t seen so much ice for years.
Not true their aim was not the North Pole;
“The goal is to travel north into the Arctic Ocean pack ice (aiming for somewhere ~87 – 89 deg N), in order to find a large ice floe to anchor Oden and set up an ice station for scientific measurements. “
Phil,
I have read the captains wording: ” vi kom inte hela vägen fram på grund av att isen helt enkelt var för besvärlig och solid. ”
My translation: “we did not reach the whole way trough because the ice simply was too cumbersome and solid.”
For the biological studies the captain also has a comment:
“Djurlivet lyser fortfarande med sin frånvaro.”
My translation:
“Animal life is absent.”
Link, in Swedish:
http://www.sjofartsverket.se/pages/111200/Veckobrev%20från%20Isbrytaren%20Oden%202018-08-22.pdf
But that does not stop them from having an ice-bear with a flag on the pole in one of their pictures illustrating a biologist that has found algae and seen birds.
Link:
https://polarforskningsportalen.se/en/arctic/expeditions/arctic-ocean-2018/blogs/forvanansvart-mycket-liv
Science at work 2018, or just another wood on the fire?
The scientists are cautious and use electrical driven vehicles to move on the ice to not pollute the sensitive environment. The diesel powered 18 MW propulsion and 4,7 MW auxiliary does not count of course. Even as it is used to charge the batteries.
Even if they grounded on ‘ground’ and not ice, I’d wager it was because the presence of ice forced them to take one risk too many.
Does that make it OK to claim that they were grounded because of the presence of ice, without actually knowing if that’s what happened? Because that’s what this article does.
Interesting. According to MASIE (as of yesterday anyway), there is little to no ice in the Gulf of Boothia where the ship is supposed to have grounded. http://masie_web.apps.nsidc.org/pub/DATASETS/NOAA/G02186/latest/4km/masie_all_r09_4km.png
On AIS tracking, the ship appears as a “passenger vessel”, currently in close proximity to a tug, with neither of them underway. https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-102.8/centery:71.0/zoom:5
How do they plan and schedule these boondoggles? Every time one of these ships gets stuck, they seem to be amazed that there was Ice in the Polar regions. They must be reading propaganda, and believing it.
OR writing their own propaganda and believing it.
That would reveal a case of projection at its best, or worst.
“writing their own propaganda and believing it” shall now be called “experimenting with positive feedback”
You can make up your own reality, and even try to live by it… but ACTUAL reality always eventually asserts itself.
In January, we were at Tom and Barb’s for dinner and climate came up in conversation. Tom has been more practical than Barb.
I mentioned that the supposed “scientific” ship cruises to the Antarctic and/or the Arctic were basically enthusiasts who were going there to demonstrate that there was no ice.
And then, at great expense, got frozen in.
They said that they had booked on just such a cruise from Copper Mine to Greenland. V. expensive.
I though “Oh dear”.
But it is scheduled for mid September.
Last week, I asked Tom if there was any rebate on cancellation.
The response was that there were many weeks to departure time.
??
Bob Hoye
That’s the same ship I sailed on in 1993 to the Antarctic Peninsula.
It was originally built for Soviet military research–submarine detection. After the Soviet Union collapse, it was re-purposed as an adventure, eco-tourist ship.
It was built with multiple screws on all sides for anchorless stability during sounding experiments. It may be “ice hardened” but would be very vulnerable to any serious ice unless they completely refashioned the hull and removed the side and front screws.
I was a summer student on an expedition in 1970 that circumnavigated the Americas. My part of the journey was only a few months doing geophysical and hydrographic measurements from Victoria BC to Alaska running back and forth over the continental shelf. I was part of the scientific crew, but bottom of the heap as a student. I was therefore bunked below decks with the engine room and galley boys most from Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. They had been on this oceanographer for almost 2 years and as the Arctic part of the jouney approached, were concerned that she was only a ‘semi’ icebreaker. Their biggest concern was that she had brass screws not steel.
I suppose they must have worked that out, as the Hudson made that journey across the Arctic without running aground or being frozen in.
Further, in 1944, the RCMP schooner St. Roch ( small mostly wooden ship with sails and engine) navigated the Northwest passage.
It is and has been possible to cross the Arctic seas without being frozen in. It just wasnt and isnt predictable that you’ll succeed. It’s no proof of catastrophic anything climatic that you make it through.
“….. After the Soviet Union collapse, it was re-purposed as an adventure, eco-tourist ship.”
———-
Leading capitalist innovation. Who were they colluding with then?
When I went on my cruise it still had the same crew that had operated the ship for the military science research. Our Head Steward had been their chief scientist. They never told us exactly what the ship was originally used for, but it was clear from the tours down below and asking a few questions. There were banks of giant hydrophones, some more than six feet across, maybe much bigger.
There was a sister ship that would park hundreds or thousands of kilometers away and set off explosions to be picked up by the banks of hydrophones.
The computer room had IBM main frames with 9″ tape drives and Amiga graphics computers for visualization. I knew at the time from oceanography courses that analyzing sound propagation through the internal waves within a water column, (with haloclines and thermoclines), was being studied for sub detection. When I saw the Amigas and mainframe I asked the Steward about studying internal waves and he looked at me funny, then smiled and said in broken English, yes yes, INSIDE WAVES.
That’s peanuts next to Soviet fishing trawlers!
The Twitter account named C2PO @oceansensing has a good recap of what exactly happened when the ship grounded. It was a very short cruise for these folks. They boarded on 23 August and were receiving their safety briefing on 24 August when the ship ran aground in open water. The ship apparently began listing immediately (CBC reports there was a hull breach). “We knew instantly it was not good,” C2PO says. Passengers were evacuated to a sister ship, Academik Sergey Vavilov. Passengers have already returned to Edmonton and as of Monday were looking for return flights home.
Wait, wait – I know! There was so much “science” going on that the ship’s captain was blinded by it, thus running aground. That’s where the phrase “she blinded me with science” comes from, right?
Check for a blue dress! I was momentarily distracted by the science.
It’s almost as if these people are complete and utter imbeciles….
Ja. Ja. Like I said.
It is cooling. Globally.
Today’s latest Arctic Sea Ice extents chart from the NSIDC’s website) shows the 25 Aug 2018 sea ice extents right in the middle of the most recent ten year’s daily sea ice extent.
Yes, it is below the 1980-2010 thirty year average sea ice extents, but 2018 is greater than 6 of the most recent 10 year measurements, and less than 4 of the most recent ten years.
Grounding vs Stuck in sea ice.
Hard to tell from the terrible information put out by the propagandists – certainly, if they have photo’s of clear water and open seas we would have many published on line! But sea ice covering the narrow channels between the Canadian islands up there? Not worthy of release, right?
regardless of their reluctance (embarrassment ?) to write about their condition on-line in public, we can assume a few things. Their ship is damaged: damaged seriously enough to prevent either continuing on or turning back and returning by sea to the Greenland side. The damage could be from sea ice being forced against the sides or propeller or rudder of the ship. Damage could be by sea ice “locking the ship in” so winds and currents then force the propeller, rudder, or hull into the rocks and bottom. Or the damage could be in open water between the islands not limited by sea ice itself, but where turning or backing down to avoid sea ice or shallow water was done improperly or too late. In that case, the sea ice was not the immediate cause, but the reason the ship was put in danger.
By the way, at this time of year, “less sea ice than normal” means “more heat lost from the newly-opened Arctic waters than normal”.
Grounding vs Stuck in sea ice.
Hard to tell from the terrible information put out by the propagandists – certainly, if they have photo’s of clear water and open seas we would have many published on line! But sea ice covering the narrow channels between the Canadian islands up there? Not worthy of release, right?
Apparently the photos showing the ship run aground in open water aren’t interesting for the propagandists so despite the fact that the photos are available they haven’t been shown here. I posted such a photo here yesterday and it’s mysteriously disappeared!
Sunday, Washington Post:
Ice melt clears new shipping route (NW Passage)
Please provide a link. NSIDC observations definitely show that no route through the NW Passage is open. Not even close.
Maybe the story was about the Northern Sea Route along the Siberian coast, which was also open in the ’30s and ’40s.
“with major funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation”
I wonder how much of our tax money was wasted on this?
This graph
http://www.meteo-paris.com/site/images/age1.jpg
shows that Arctic sea ice extent is heading uphill, indicating that the Arctic has entered the cooling phase.