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Friday, March 29, 2024
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Antarctica News

02 Feb 2024

OSV Owners Reap the Rewards of Data Sharing

L to R: Greg Trauthwein, President, New Wave Media; Eric Griffin, Vice President, Offshore Energy & Fishing, Inmarsat; Maritime Ron Welles, C-Comm Manager, Marine Technologies; Kyle Pemberton, Manager of Engineering, SEACOR; Dain Detillier, Executive Vice President – LNG Operations, Harvey Gulf International Marine.Image courtesy Eric Haun.

A ‘Connected Future’ seminar, organized by Inmarsat in collaboration with Maritime Reporter & Engineering News and moderated by Greg Trauthwein, encapsulated the critical roles technology and data sharing play in enabling more efficient and sustainable workboat operations, and in improving conditions for crew.Insights from leading Offshore Supply Vessel owners and operators capture the extent to which technology and data sharing are driving greater efficiency, sustainability and…

23 Jan 2024

RRS Sir David Attenborough Begins Research Mission in the Southern Ocean

(Photo: British Antarctic Survey)

Scientists aboard Britain's high-tech polar research vessel RRS Sir David Attenborough are headed to the Weddell Sea to investigate how carbon dioxide moves and transforms in the Southern Ocean.The ship departed Tuesday from Punta Arenas, Chile for the 30-day scientific expedition.As the carbon in the seawater rises to the surface near Antarctica, it interacts with the atmosphere, ice, and microscopic plants and animals, called phytoplankton and zooplankton, near the ocean surface, before descending to the ocean depths.

23 Jan 2024

SunStone Lines Up Multi-year Charters for Two Expedition Cruise Ships

(Photo: SunStone Maritime Group)

SunStone Maritime Group announced it has secured multi-year charters for two of its expedition cruise ships.The deals are for SunStone's Infinity Class vessels Ocean Explorer and the Ocean Odyssey, both built by China Merchants Heavy Industry (Jiangsu) and delivered in 2021 and 2022 respectively.Under its new charter agreement, Ocean Explorer will return to polar cruising in October 2024 for SunStone's long-term client Quark Expeditions. The vessel, which ran aground in a remote part of Greenland last year…

26 Nov 2023

Engine Room Fire Investigation Highlights Due Diligence Failings

Source: ATSB

A fire on board a multi-purpose vessel chartered by the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) while transiting the Southern Ocean highlights the risks and challenges of operating in harsh, remote conditions.On April 5, 2021, the 145 meter MPV Everest was en route from Antarctica to Hobart with 37 crew and 72 Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) staff on board when a fire broke out in its port engine room.The fire was contained and eventually extinguished using the engine room water mist fixed fire-extinguishing system after about 2.5 hours…

13 Nov 2023

Atlas Ocean Voyages Christens World Voyager

Source: Atlas Ocean Voyages

Yacht cruising company Atlas Ocean Voyages has held a naming ceremony in Ushuaia, Argentina for the World Voyager.The 198-guest expedition yacht was christened by Godmother British physiotherapist and British Army Captain Harpreet "Preet" Kaur Chandi MBE.The third vessel in the line's expedition fleet, the sister ship to Atlas Ocean Voyages' World Traveller and World Navigator, the vessel will now begin its inaugural deployment for the 2023/24 Antarctica season.The Polar Category C- and Ice Class 1B-certified vessel features two Rolls Royce 9…

02 Aug 2023

New Expedition Cruise Ship Delivered to Seabourn

Seabourn Pursuit (Photo: Seabourn)

Carnival's Seabourn brand has taken delivery of its second purpose-built, ultra-luxury expedition ship, Seabourn Pursuit, during an official handover ceremony at the T. Mariotti shipyard in Genoa, Italy. The "yacht like" small ship is designed and built for remote, diverse environments to PC6 Polar Class standards and includes modern hardware and technology that extend the ship's global deployment and capabilities and allows the line to offer a wide range of expedition activities led by an expert 24-person expedition team of scientists…

25 Jul 2023

Titan: The Right to Kill Oneself Redux

St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada- OceanGate-June 2023: Polar Prince towing OceanGate Expeditions submersible vessels on a barge as it leaves for the Titanic wreck site to tour below the ocean.
Copyright Dolores Harvey/AdobeStock

In November 2020 I wrote a column in MREN that discussed the right of people to engage in crazy marine ventures. The example I used in that column was an attempt to row from South America to Antarctica. In it I also made note of the inherent unseaworthiness of single-handed ocean racing and noted that such foolishness often resulted in the public spending lots of money providing rescue services.The Ocean Gate Expedition Titan venture has now managed to set an entirely new standard…

24 Jul 2023

Ocean Explorer Offers Help to Gulf Livestock 1 Families

Ocean explorer Rob McCallum has offered to join a mission to find and retrieve the data recorder of the livestock carrier that capsized in the East China Sea in 2020.Reporting by 7News.com.au indicates that McCallum is confident that his team could find the Gulf Livestock 1, offering fresh hope to the families of the missing crew after some recently voiced disappointment with the investigation report into the catastrophe published by flag state Panama.The livestock carrier was sailing from New Zealand to China with 43 crew and approximately 6,000 dairy cattle onboard when it capsized in the East China Sea during Typhoon Maysak. 40 crew members remain missing after the capsize.As vessel flag state…

24 May 2023

Tall Ship Topples Over in Drydock

(Photo: Bark EUROPA)

A 112-year-old tall ship has toppled over during a drydock maintenance period in South Africa.The Netherlands-registered Europa fell over during an attempt to transfer the steel-hulled barque back into the water from drydock at a Cape Town ship repair facility, leaving one crewmember with minor injuries."The injured sailor is receiving the necessary medical care and is doing well, given the circumstances," the ship's operator Bark Europa said. "He is currently in stable condition…

01 May 2023

Australia Readies New Icebreaker After Repairs

Credit: Peter Harmsen, AAD

Australia’s icebreaker RSV Nuyina has been conducting sea trials in Hobart’s River Derwent as part of familiarization exercises with TasPorts pilots after returning from Singapore for repairs.The 160-meter vessel was built by Damen Shipyards in Romania and delivered in October 2021. In Singapore, issues identified with couplings that connect the propulsion shafts with the clutches were rectified under warranty.Nuyina will now depart Hobart for Macquarie Island research station in early May for cargo delivery and science support.

31 Jan 2023

As Ice Recedes, Italian Ship Makes Record Journey into Antarctic

(Photo: National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics)

An Italian ice-breaker carrying scientists researching in the Antarctic has sailed further south than any ship has done before, the organizers of the voyage said on Tuesday, a further sign of how ice is retreating around the poles.The Laura Bassi vessel reached a point with the coordinates of 78° 44.280 S in the Bay of Whales in the Ross Sea, according to Italy’s National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics.The voyage was made possible by an unusual lack of ice in the area, it said.

29 Jan 2023

Russian Antarctic Vessel Docks in South Africa as Green Groups Protest

A Russian research vessel which has been prospecting for oil and natural gas in the Antarctic docked in South Africa on Saturday following protests by green campaigners who say its operations in the region violate a treaty banning mineral exploration.Several members of the Extinction Rebellion environmental group held banners reading "Hands off Antarctica" as the polar explorer ship Akademik Alexander Karpinsky arrived as scheduled in Cape Town's port during the morning.Earlier this week, several dozen protesters from Greenpeace and Extinction Rebellion demonstrated at the port, saying the ship's seismic surveys in the Antarctic were a threat to marine life in the area and violated a 1958 international agreement.A 1998 amendment to the 55-nation Antarctic Treaty…

19 Oct 2022

Chile Uses High-tech Buoys to Protect Migrating Whales

(Photo: Fundacion MERI)

A smart buoy that can "hear" the ocean and monitor climate change is part of a new effort to help endangered whales avoid ship collisions on their journey from Antarctica to the equator.The buoy was installed in the Gulf of Corcovado, some 1,100 kilometers (684 miles) south of Chile's capital, in early October and is the first of many planned by the Blue Boat Initiative, a project designed to protect whales and monitor marine ecosystems.The area is teeming with marine life and…

12 Oct 2022

Hurtigruten Expeditions to Install SpaceX’s Starlink Fleetwide

A Starlink terminal on board Hurtigruten Expeditions' battery-hybrid powered MS RoaldAmundsen. (Photo: Oscar Farrera / Hurtigruten Expeditions)

Hurtigruten Expeditions said it will be the first cruise line to implement SpaceX’s broadband service Starlink across its entire fleet.The expedition cruise line and its long-time connectivity partner Speedcast began testing and integration of Starlink terminals on board the operator's fleet of small-size expedition cruise ships in March. Installation will be complete by end of October, making Hurtigruten Expeditions the first cruise line to introduce the high-speed, low-latency connectivity across its entire fleet…

28 Sep 2022

Viking Takes Delivery of New Expedition Cruise Ship

(Photo: VARD)

Shipbuilder VARD has delivered Viking Polaris, the second of two ice-strengthened expedition vessels for operator Viking.Built at Vard Søviknes in Ålesund, Norway, Viking Polaris is specifically geared for adventure cruises in polar destinations. The vessel has a length of 205 meters and a beam of 23.5 meters, especially designed and developed for expeditions in Antarctica and North America’s Great Lakes. The vessel hosts 378 guests in 189 staterooms."Together with her sister…

15 Aug 2022

FerryBox: PONANT Exploration Vessel Collecting Arctic Ocean Data

©PONANT-Mike Louagie

PONANT’s new science-focused exploration vessel has started collecting Arctic Ocean data with -4H-JENA engineering’s FerryBox multi-parameter water measurement system on board.The system is now being used to evaluate the role of global warming and glacial meltwater on the rising level of oxygen in the oceans aboard PONANT’s Le Commandant Charcot, the world’s only luxury icebreaker, a hybrid-electric vessel powered by liquified natural gas.A unique concept with minimal environmental impact due to her green energy and propulsion systems…

08 Apr 2022

The Ship that Found Antarctica’s Endurance Wreck is Vital for Climate Science

(Photo: Saunders Carmichael-Brown / Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust)

It was 1914 when the English explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton set sail on his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition aboard a ship called Endurance. It was an ill-fated journey: the ship got trapped in the ice and eventually crushed by pack ice in 1915. It sank to the bottom of Antarctica’s Weddell Sea. (Shackleton and his entire crew survived the ordeal by escaping in smaller boats.)It was difficult to believe that the Endurance might ever be found. The icy Weddell Sea is inhospitable and the wreck lay in more than 3000 metres of water.

01 Apr 2022

Marlink, Intelsat Increase Bandwidth Capacity for Cruise and Merchant Shipping Sectors

©Intelsat

Smart network company Marlink has extended its partnership with Intelsat to offer increased Ku and C-band satellite connectivity to maritime customers in cruise and merchant shipping sectors.The agreement will see Intelsat assign capacity to the Marlink network providing a unique level of coverage in waters as far south as Antarctica as well as ocean regions around Africa and the Middle East. Marlink will derive the additional capacity from multiple assets, including Intelsat’s high-throughput satellites…

24 Jan 2022

Crystal Symphony Diverts to the Bahamas to Avoid Arrest

© Yuriy Chertok / Adobe Stock

A luxury cruise ship has skipped its call to Miami and diverted to the Bahamas after a U.S. judge ordered its seizure as part of a lawsuit over unpaid fuel bills.The Crystal Symphony, operated by Genting Hong Kong's Crystal Cruises, was scheduled to conclude a Caribbean voyage in Miami on Saturday, but the ship sailed to the Bahamian island of Bimini instead after a federal judge in Miami granted an order to arrest the 781-foot, Bahamas-flagged vessel over unpaid fuel bills.Bunker supplier Peninsula Petroleum Far East sued the ship and Crystal Cruises…

09 Mar 2022

Shackleton's Ship Endurance Found Beneath Antarctic Ice

© Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust / National Geographic

The wreckage of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance, which was crushed by Antarctic ice and sank some 10,000 feet (3,000 m) to the ocean floor more than a century ago, has been found, a team searching for it said on Wednesday.The three-masted sailing ship was lost in November 1915 during Shackleton’s failed attempt to make the first land crossing of Antarctica.Previous attempts to locate the 144-foot-long wooden wreck, whose location was logged by its captain Frank Worsley…

08 Feb 2022

US' Sole Heavy Icebreaker Arrives in Antarctica

(Photo: Diolanda Caballero / U.S. Coast Guard)

The 157 crewmembers of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star (WAGB 10) arrived at McMurdo Station in Antarctica Monday following an 86-day transit from the United States and the cutter’s departure from its Seattle homeport Nov. 13.This deployment marks the Polar Star’s 25th journey to Antarctica supporting Operation Deep Freeze, an annual joint military service mission to resupply the United States Antarctic stations in support of the National Science Foundation, lead agency for the United States Antarctic Program.Each year…

26 Jan 2022

The Arctic: Scientists Aim to Improve Sea Ice Predictions' Accuracy, Access

Residents of Utqiagvik return by snowmachine from the lead at the edge of the shore-fast ice. Photo by Andy Mahoney, UAF Geophysical Institute

Sea ice predictions have improved markedly since the founding of an international forecasting and monitoring network 14 years ago.“These forecasts are quite encouraging in their increasing accuracy,” said Uma Bhatt, an atmospheric sciences professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute. Bhatt spoke about the Sea Ice Prediction Network at the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting last month.As the amount of sea ice in the Arctic declines, thins and becomes more mobile…

22 Mar 2022

New Zealand Suspends Antarctic Patrol Ship Project

(Photo: New Zealand Ministry of Defense)

New Zealand’s Ministry of Defense said it has suspended plans to build an Antarctic and Southern Ocean patrol vessel because planned spending is being reassessed due to the impact on the government’s budget of costs related to the COVID-19 pandemic.The Ministry of Defense in mid-2021 issued a request for information on the cost and potential design of a Southern Patrol Ocean Vessel, reinforced to cope with ice.