Travelling not soliciting: Antarctica (part 2-the journey)

We finish our Antarctica expedition tomorrow when we arrive back in Invercargill at the southern end of the South Island of New Zealand. We have been at sea for twenty days and sadly have had very bad weather and ice conditions so we have not had anywhere near the number of landings that we were expecting, particularly in Antarctica itself. This has been disappointing for us all.

But it has reinforced for me how huge Antarctica is, and how different West and East Antarctica are, even though both are locked in snow and ice. When I came to Antarctica in 2008 I went to the Antarctic Peninsula in West Antarctica, sailing from Ushuaia in Argentina in a Russian research vessel called the Akademik Shokalsky, with only 45 passengers. Once we were through the turmoil of the Drake Passage, where all the currents and winds of the Southern Ocean funnel through a narrow gap between South America and the Antarctic Peninsula, we had generally good weather and two or three excellent landings for 7 days of our 11 day voyage and wonderful wildlife sightings.

Not so lucky on this voyage unfortunately. We have only managed one landing in Antarctica itself (at Scott’s hut at Cape Evans from where he set out on his ill-fated journey in 1911/12 by sledge to the North Pole on the return from which he died) and two landings on sub-Antarctic islands (Macquarie which is Australian and Campbell which is New Zealand’s). More of all this later….

I first became interested in going to Antarctica when I saw a map of the continent from “underneath”. At school you will have learned geography from the usual flat maps of the world which only show in detail the big continents particularly those in the northern hemisphere with a little white frill at the bottom of the page which is labelled “Antarctica”. Even if you have looked at a globe you can’t really appreciate the size of Antarctica because the spike down the centre of the globe exits through Antarctica and spoils the visual effect. Antarctica is huge—one and a half times the size of the USA, twice the size of Australia and of Europe.

One hundred and seventy million years ago Antarctica was part of the southern supercontinent of Gondwana. It was located much further north and sustained plenty of vegetation and probably animal life too. Continental drift split up Gondwana. South America separated from Africa, Australia sailed eastward . India drifted away northwards and tacked itself onto Asia. East and West Antarctica drifted south and stuck together. Now Antarctica is 625 miles from South America, 1375 miles from New Zealand, and 2250 miles from South Africa.

Eastern and Western Antarctica are very different geologically since the eastern part was most recently attached to Australia and the western part was most recently attached to South America. If you look at a contour map you can see that the Antarctic Peninsula on the western (left) side is an extension of the Andes and the Rockies, separated only by the narrow Drake Passage.

Fossils of vegetation and rocks similar to those found in other countries which were originally part of Gondwana, can be found in Antarctica. But now the Antarctic continent is 98% covered with a polar ice sheet to a mean thickness of nearly five kilometers. The Southern Ocean which swirls around Antarctica has a mean depth of 13,100 feet.

And Antarctica is pristine. Humans have left virtually no trace on the continent and the relics of the age of exploration at the beginning of the 20^th century look pitifully small. Even the modern day research bases of the various countries which are signatories of the Antarctic Treaty, are mere scattered lonely specks in the vastness. The purity of Antarctica is

Antarctica is protected from pollution by the currents and winds which circle the continent, keeping out the plastic bags and oil spills and other detritus which mar most oceans these days.

The currents and prevailing winds also isolate the cold into the area below the Antarctic Convergence (also called the Polar Front). In a relatively short stretch of ocean (50 km)the climate drops rapidly from the just north of the Polar Front where the sub-Antarctic islands enjoy a relatively balmy and consistent summer and winter temperature of -1 to ₊6 degrees centigrade with very little snow, to the frigid temperatures of the Southern Ocean where the water hovers just above the freezing point of salt water (minus -1.86 degrees centigrade) in summer and plunges to below that in winter when the sea ice almost doubles the size of the Antarctic continent and the air temperature falls to minus - 60 degrees.

The winds and currents run in opposing directions (one clockwise and the other counter-clockwise) as you move further south so you pass through the Roaring Forties,the Furious Fifties and the Shrieking Sixties, names which convey the fierce wildness of the winds and currents as you move into the most southerly latitudes.

Antarctica holds 70% of the world’s fresh water (in ice form) and the currents circling the continent stir up nutrients which feed huge biomasses of krill, the mini-shrimp-like creatures which form the basis of the food chain for whales, fish, seals, birds and penguins. And just as the penguins have adapted their bird-like habits and physical characteristics to the climate so have the fish. When Antarctica was part of Gondwana the fish in the oceans surrounding it were the same as for what became India, Australia, Africa and South America. However when Antarctica drifted south not only did its plants and land creatures die out but so did most of the fish as the waters got colder and colder and the sea plunged to its freezing temperature of -1.86 degrees.

The only fish species to survive was a perch like creature which had the capacity to manufacture an antifreeze which enabled it to tolerate temperatures down to -2.2 degrees. Strangely this perch-like fish had no swim bladder and so it had no buoyancy and so any movement required a lot of energy. As a result the fish which live in Antarctica--of which the giant, very slow-moving toothfish is the best known--have all developed with this antifreeze-making ability and have no swim bladder.

By the way, remember the craze a few years ago for so-called "Chilean sea bass"? Well it is not a bass at all. It is a Patagonian toothfish, closely related to the Antarctic toothfish. But would you really have ordered it if the menu had said "toothfish"? So clever marketing dictated a name change. But they are endangered so don't order them off the menu any more please.

There are very few land creatures---and even they are really more at home in the ocean: seals and penguins will come out of the sea and onto the ice floes to breed and rest and escape predators but their movements are clumsy and inefficient on land. All the predators are in the sea (killer whales and leopard seals), so the land is a safe haven and so penguins, although they are birds, have lost the power of flight. How different from the northern hemisphere!

And Antarctica is relatively protected from that Alpha predator, human beings. In an extraordinary act of selflessness (although with an ulterior motive!) all of the countries which could conceivably exploit Antarctica’s undoubted natural resources have signed the Antarctic Treaty which since 1961 has preserved the continent for scientific research and peaceful activities such as tourism.

Of course to exploit the resources under a mile thick ice sheet would require enormous expenditure for unknown returns. Most countries would not have the wealth or skill to participate in a race to exploit Antarctica. So there is an ulterior motive for most countries who are signatories of the treaty. By signing a treaty preserving the continent for science, each country saves itself money and successfully locks out its competitors, thus ensuring that none of their competitors can steal a march on them and exploit the resources.

I have plenty more to say about Antarctica, including about our visit to Scott's hut in minus 25degrees centigrade wind chill, but will put it in a future post and will get some more photos uploaded too. Check back later...

Iceberg in first-year pack-ice. This would be about 8/10 (that is the measure of the closeness of the pack ice, while the age measure tells you about its thickness, with first year being quite thin. Never-the-less a ship needs to be very careful moving through even first year ice because most of the volume of the ice is below the surface. Even a ship with an ice-strengthened hull will be damaged if it hits a seemingly small chunk of ice if it has a large submerged "skirt" below the surface. An icebreaker does not plough through the ice---it rides its bow up on the ice and smashes it downwards with its weight

more pack ice. The water tends to be calm in the pack ice since the weight and thickness of the ice suppresses the waves

There are often seals and penguins on the pack ice.

The same seal, a "crabeater" closer up. They are fully aware that the ship is passing but they try to avoid getting up from their resting place!

Two Adelie penguins on the front floe and two Crabeater seals on the one behind

Who's looking at who?

Should we move?

A pair of Adelie penguins watching the ship go by

This was an interesting sight. The front two are Adelie penguins and the large one behind is an Emperor penguin, probably a young one just venturing out on its own and so feeling a little lost.

This is a Minke whale. We didn't see many whales--the Japanese whaling ships were about pursuing whales and themselves being pursued by the Sea Shepherd ships.