Posts Tagged ‘Antarctica’
Journey to the Ross Sea #8
We have been making our way through the sea ice for the last few days as we head across the Amundsen Sea. Adelie and Emperor penguins continue to float past on ice floes like extras in the latest Wallace and Gromit movie. Our progress is slow – just 5 knots – as the ship’s crew…
Read MoreJourney to the Ross Sea #7
It is the end of February here at the end of the world and the signs of summer fading are everywhere. The penguin rookeries are quickly emptying and those chicks still moulting are unlikely to survive so late in the season. Steam is starting to rise off the ocean as the water temperature cools; slicks…
Read MoreJourney to the Ross Sea #6
As we head into the Ross Sea and journey past 70 degrees South both the weather and the internet connection become erratic! These last few days at sea have been truly magical as the Last Ocean slowly reveals her secrets. Along the shore, Adelie penguin rookeries continue to colonise that same prime real estate of…
Read MoreJourney to the Ross Sea #5
February 16th We have now been four days at sea and still have three to go until we reach Antarctica and the Ross Sea. Last night the weather took a turn for the worse and we were met with 60 knot winds gusting to 95. Some of the waves crashing over the bow were 14…
Read MoreJourney to the Ross Sea #4
The day finally dawned that many passengers had been looking forward to for months, years and for some – me included – a lifetime as we boarded the Ortelius, the mother ship and our Ark for the next 30 days and 30 nights. Ahead of us lay the 2,500 mile journey to the Ross Sea…
Read MoreJourney to the Ross Sea #3
At a meeting in Hobart, Australia last year a golden opportunity was once again thrown away to afford the Ross Sea meaningful, permanent protection from the ever increasing influence of man in that region – particularly through overfishing. This was the fourth time that the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR),…
Read MoreJourney to the Ross Sea #2
I remember staring up at the huge map of the world in my geography classes at school and seeing Antarctica represented as a featureless white strip of land running along the bottom of the world. It was only much later did I appreciate how immense the white continent actually is and recognise it as truly…
Read MoreJourney to the Ross Sea #1
In February 2015, Rob Lott, WDC’s Policy Manager, will be heading to New Zealand to join a ship’s expedition to the Ross Sea in Antarctica. Over the coming weeks he will provide updates through blogs and images of this fragile ecosystem highlighting the region’s landscapes and wildlife while also documenting the environmental threats the Antarctic…
Read MoreBritain’s Whale Hunters – an initial review of the BBC series
“You went away a boy and you came back a man”, so says one of the last of the British whalers interviewed for Adam Nicolson’s two part story telling the history of British whaling that aired for the first time on the 8th June. This is my review written as the programme aired, so please…
Read MoreThat‘s just “quackers” …
Back in the 1960’s submarines detected a bizarre “quacking” sound in the southern ocean and have been perplexed as to its origins ever since. The noise – nicknamed the “bio-duck” – was only heard during winter and spring months and was attributed to everything from ships to fish, but no-one really knew what was making…
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