By Alister Doyle OSLO, June 21 (Reuters) - One of the biggest icebergs on record is like a "niggling tooth" about to snap off Antarctica and will be an extra hazard for ships around the frozen continent as it breaks up, scientists said on Wednesday. An area of the Larsen C ice shelf, about as big as the U.S. state of Delaware or the Indonesian island of Bali, is connected by … [Read more...]
Watch: Skillful Navigation Between a Rock and an Iceberg in Antarctica
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4ULA9tCho8 ***Sorry, but this video has been removed by the creator*** In this video you can hear the Captain skillfully direct the helmsman while navigating through the Lemaire Channel between an iceberg andluna Booth Island off the Antarctic peninsula. Video filmed in March 2017. … [Read more...]
Ship Photos of the Day – MSC-Chartered ‘Ocean Giant’ Arrives at McMurdo Station, Antarctica
A few days ago we showed you pictures of the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Star clearing a navigation channel to McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Today here are pictures showing the arrival of the Military Sealift Command-chartered vessel MV Ocean Giant, which is now conducting cargo offload operations at the station. As we reported, the USCGC Polar Star reached McMurdo on … [Read more...]
Antarctic Ocean To Host Worlds Largest Marine Sanctuary
By Colin Packham (Reuters) Twenty-four countries and the European Union agreed on Friday to create the world's largest marine park in the Antarctic Ocean, covering a massive 1.55 million square km (600,000 square miles) of ocean. The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, meeting in Hobart, Australia, said the Ross Sea marine park would be … [Read more...]
Uncharted Waters: Mega-Cruise Ships Sail the Arctic
By Gwladys Fouche SVALBARD, Norway, Oct 10 (Reuters) - A surge in Arctic tourism is bringing ever bigger cruise ships to the formerly isolated, ice-bound region, prompting calls for a clamp-down to prevent Titanic-style accidents and the pollution of fragile eco-systems. Arctic nations should consider limiting the size of vessels and ban the use of heavy fuel oil in the … [Read more...]
Antarctica Gets Hot for Another Reason: Cruise Tourism
By Justin Bachman (Bloomberg) -- In January 1966, the first ship carrying “citizen-explorers” arrived in Antarctica. At the time, only a handful of leisure travelers had ever considered visiting the world’s most remote land mass. “I was aware that the idea of setting up tours to that frozen continent would be tangled with complications,” wrote Swedish-American … [Read more...]
Time-Lapse: Operation Deep Freeze, the Annual Resupply Mission to Antarctica’s McMurdo Station
Here's a 4 minute time-lapse of aboard the Military Sealift Command-chartered MV Ocean Giant during Operation Deep Freeze 2016, an annual resupply mission to McMurdo Station, a U.S. Antarctic research center on the south tip of Ross Island. The video was made by Kings Point cadet, Tanner Evans. … [Read more...]