Ross Sea News

Digital network provider Marlink has completed the integration of internet services on Ponant’s Le Commandant Charcot to provide three LEO solutions for the ship’s polar itineraries.The installation is the first in the maritime sector to combine Marlink’s Sealink GEO VSAT, with Starlink, Eutelsat OneWeb and Iridium LEO services. The agreement with Ponant reflects Marlink’s ability to provide guaranteed throughput VSAT services with emerging high speed, low latency LEO services.The…

Two Chinese icebreaker research vessels and a cargo ship set sail on Wednesday for the Antarctic with more than 460 personnel on board to help complete construction of China's fifth station on the world's southernmost continent.China's biggest flotilla of research vessels deployed to the Antarctic will focus on building the station on the rocky, windswept Inexpressible Island near the Ross Sea, a deep Southern Ocean bay named after a 19th century British explorer.Work on the first Chinese station in the Pacific sector began in 2018.

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.

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.

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…

Highlighted in Marine Technology Reporter's MTR100 is the work and technology ongoing in the halls of academia. The most recent report released by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change emphasized our warming planet, an expected announcement for many in the scientific community. Faced with the confirmation that human activities have caused an increase in global temperatures, research has turned to seeking answers in the planet’s natural systems. How does each part of the global carbon cycle work and how may it be impacted by the changing climate?

Shipbuilder and designer Vard on Monday said it delivered the newly built expedition cruise ship Le Commandant Charcot for the French cruise company Ponant.The electric hybrid polar exploration vessel propelled with liquefied natural gas (LNG) has been developed by Ponant, Stirling Design International, Aker Arctic and Fincantieri subsidiary Vard. The vessel, classified as Polar Class 2, is specially designed to bring passengers to discover the polar world’s extreme unexplored lands such as the geographic North Pole (90 degrees North Latitude), the Weddell Sea, the Ross Sea and Peter I Island.

Beca Applied Technologies Ltd, with the support of specialist naval architecture company Vard Marine Inc, have been appointed by the New Zealand Ministry of Defense as the Technical Support Partner to the Southern Ocean Patrol Vessel (SOPV) project. Beca and Vard Marine will join the Ministry’s Integrated Project Team providing systems engineering, concept design and technical logistics input for the early stages of the project as the capability is defined and specified.The SOPV project is exploring options for an ice-strengthened offshore patrol vessel for Southern Ocean operations will be navigating the large distance between New Zealand and Antarctica…

Scientists have discovered an active methane seep from Antarctica's sea bed that could shed light on the potent greenhouse gas trapped beneath the frozen continent.Marine ecologist Andrew Thurber first glimpsed what a colleague described as a "microbial waterfall" during a dive in the icy waters of the Ross Sea in 2012. What looked like a superhighway of white patches on the ocean floor were clusters of tiny organisms drawn to the methane leak."My first thought was 'wow,' and I was immediately enamored with what this means for science…

While nothing lasts forever, the cruise industry – and particularly the ‘expedition’ cruise sector – remain on a historic run with no indication of a near-term slowdown.The leisure travel sector, of which expedition cruising is a part, offers numerous possibilities for delivering new “experiences” unlike industrial shipping businesses (or even conventional ferry and passenger transport), which can only grow as fast as the demand in a particular sector.Though there is no precise definition of “expedition”…

As of January 1, 2019, Antarctic sea ice extent had experienced several days of record lows. These record-low extents, which followed a period of rapid ice loss in December, exemplify the high seasonal and year-to-year variability in Antarctic sea ice. With six to eight weeks remaining in the melt season, it remains to be seen whether the present situation will persist and lead to a record-low annual minimum. A discussion of Arctic conditions will be posted next week.Overview of conditionsOn January 1…

German Chancellor, Angela Merkel and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern’s Prime Minister, Manuela Schwesig were among those in attendance at a keel laying ceremony for the world’s largest polar-class expedition yacht held Tuesday in Germany.The ceremony marked a construction milestone for the 20,000 gross ton luxury expedition yacht Crystal Endeavor, currently being built for Crystal Cruises at MV WERFTEN's Stralsund shipyard.“The keel laying of Crystal Endeavor here in my political hometown of Stralsund marks a special moment for me that is doubly significant…

Quark Expeditions has signed an agreement with Croatian shipbuilder Brodosplit to build a new expedition ship designed for operation in the polar regions.The 13,000+ gross metric ton, 200-passenger ship was designed by LMG Marin in cooperation with Quark Expeditions and is scheduled to be launched in 2020.“This ship will be more than just a ship – it will be an unrivalled operational base for polar expeditions,” said Andrew White, Quark Expeditions President.The ship will carry 20 zodiacs that will be rapidly deployable from an internal zodiac hangar with four embarkation points.

America’s aging, sole remaining heavy icebreaker suffered several engineering challenges, including flooding and engine failure, on its way to completing a recent mission in the Antarctic, highlighting the U.S.’ need for new polar icebreakers. The 1970s-era U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star is called upon each year to aid the delivery of fuel and supplies for National Science Foundation research stations in Antarctica, carving a navigable path through the Ross Sea where seasonal and multi-year ice is sometimes as much as 10 feet thick.

French cruise line Ponant has ordered the world's first hybrid electric cruise icebreaker with liquefied natural gas (LNG) propulsion, due to take passengers to extremely remote polar locales from 2021. The polar-ready luxury liner will be constructed by Fincantieri subsidiary Vard Holdings Limited, who secured the approximately $320 million shipbuilding contract. The hull will be built at Vard Tulcea in Romania, with delivery from Vard Søviknes in Norway scheduled for the second quarter of 2021.

Emergency responders have launched an urgent rescue mission to Antartic waters to evacuate a cruise ship passenger who is suspected to have suffered a stroke early Monday morning. Working closely with the U.S. Antarctic Program and the vessel’s operator and crew, Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand (RCCNZ) is coordinating the medevac after receiving a call from the expedition cruise ship MV Ortelius located in the Ross Sea, off the Antarctic ice shelf, 3,600 km south of New Zealand.

The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star arrived at the National Science Foundation’s McMurdo Station Tuesday after cutting a resupply channel through more than 60 miles of Antarctic ice in the Ross Sea. By carving a navigable path through seasonal and multi-year ice, the Polar Star assists in the annual delivery of operating supplies and fuel for two of NSF's three U.S. research stations in Antarctica. The Polar Star is America’s only operational heavy icebreaker that is capable of conducting the Antarctic resupply mission.

The Commission on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) today agreed to set aside more than 1 million square kilometres of the Ross Sea in recognition of its incredible scientific and biodiversity values. CCAMLR committed to creating a system of marine protected areas in the Southern Ocean in 2009 and has been discussing the creation of MPAs in the Ross Sea and East Antarctica for several years. Claire Christian, director of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, said  “ASOC is thrilled to see that CCAMLR has protected 1.55 million square km of the Ross Sea, 1.12 million square kilometers of which will be fully protected with the remaining area designated as special research zones.

The Antarctic Ocean Alliance (AOA) called on the 25 member countries gathering today for the annual meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) to finally agree on lasting and significant Southern Ocean protection. CCAMLR previously pledged to establish two marine protected areas by 2012, but, because of a lack of consensus, member states have failed to reach agreement on two major proposals on four separate occasions. The Southern Ocean is home to more than 10,000 unique species, including most of the world’s penguins, whales, seabirds, and colossal squid, as well as the commercially targeted Antarctic toothfish, known in many retail outlets as Chilean sea bass.

Ice ship HMS Protector is heading for waters no Royal Navy vessel has visited in 80 years as she begins a marathon deployment to Antarctica. The Plymouth-based icebreaker and survey vessel will ensure the world’s fishermen are not stripping the largely-unspoiled waters of the Ross Sea of marine life. This part of Antarctica – it’s where Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen began his successful attempt to become the first person to reach the South Pole – has not seen a Royal Navy or UK Government vessel for around eight decades. The sea contains valuable fish stocks and Protector will help to ensure fishing vessels comply with the strict environmental rules that ensure this remains a sustainable resource.

Bringing home the prize for Valeport’s first product in action competition were an image of a Weddell Seal in the Antarctica carrying a Valeport CTD sensor and a hands-on video showing the pilot deployment of a Valeport Midas directional wave recorder at the mouth of the U.K.’s Humber Estuary. U.K.-based Valeport, a designer and manufacturer instrumentation for the oceanographic, hydrographic and hydrometric communities, asked its customers to submit videos and photos of Valeport products in action for a chance to win an iPad Air 2 (video category) and iPad Mini 3 (picture category).

Antarctica's ice paradox has yet another puzzling layer. Not only is the amount of sea ice increasing each year, but an underwater robot now shows the ice is also much thicker than was previously thought, a new study reports. The discovery adds to the ongoing mystery of Antarctica's expanding sea ice. According to climate models, the region's sea ice should be shrinking each year because of global warming. Instead, satellite observations show the ice is expanding, and the continent's sea ice has set new records for the past three winters. At the same time, Antarctica's ice sheet (the glacial ice on land) is melting and retreating. Measuring sea ice thickness is a crucial step in understanding what's driving the growth of sea ice…

The United States National Ice Center (NIC) named three new icebergs after a previous iceberg B15T broke into four pieces. B15T remains, while the resultant icebergs are named B15Z, B15AA and B15AB. B15T is the largest surviving remnant of the largest ever recorded iceberg B15, which calved from the Ross Ice Shelf in March of 2000 and was roughly the size of Jamaica when it originally separated from Antarctica. As B15 broke apart, all pieces over 10 nautical miles long received their own designation and were tracked.