Antarctic Cruise Ship Runs Aground; Oil Leak Spreading?

National Geographic News 5 Dec 08;

A cruise ship stranded itself on Antarctica's western peninsula on Thursday, and may be leaking unknown amounts of oil into the fragile oceans, one expert said.

All 122 passengers and crew were rescued from the leaking ship, Ushuaia, on Friday by the Chilean Navy. The ship did not appear to be in danger of sinking.

The Chilean vessel Aquiles transported 89 passengers and 33 crew members to the Presidente Frei Naval Base in Antarctica.

Jon Bowermaster, a National Geographic Expeditions Council grantee and writer, was on the National Geographic Explorer about 30 miles (48.2 kilometers) from the cruise ship when it ran aground after hitting a rock. (National Geographic News is owned by the National Geographic Society.)

"We were in the same area on Wednesday, when hurricane force winds blew for much of the day, gusting over 100 miles [161 kilometers] per hour," Bowermaster told National Geographic News in an email from the Explorer.

"The Ushuaia reported having been in heavy weather; whether or not this contributed to its [grounding] is speculation, but would make sense."

Bowermaster witnessed the sinking of another Antarctic tourist vessel in November 2007. All 154 passengers of the Canadian M.S. Explorer escaped safely.

Alarm Call

The Panamanian-flagged Ushuaia sent out alarms midday Thursday after it started leaking fuel and taking on water.

A rock damaged the hull as the vessel passed through the Gerlache Strait, Chilean Captain Pedro Ojeda told Argentina's Telam news agency. The crash left the boat adrift in Guillermina Bay.

The Chilean Navy said the cruise ship was carrying 14 Danish passengers, 12 Americans, 11 Australians, 9 Germans, 7 Argentines, 7 British, 6 Chinese, 6 Spaniards, 5 Swiss, 3 Italians, 2 French, 2 Canadians, 2 Irish, a Belgian and a New Zealander. All were in good condition.

The cruise ship, built in 1970, operates from the Port of Ushuaia in southern Argentina, transporting passengers to Antarctica and islands in the icy waters of the South Atlantic.

Environmental Dangers?

The navy positioned the ship Lautaro near the abandoned Ushuaia in an attempt to prevent any environmental damage from leaking fuel.

But Bowermaster said it's still unknown how much fuel oil has spilled from the ship.

"A Chilean plane reports seeing no major leak, but it [has] also reported that a fuel leak has spread for half a mile around the ship," he wrote.

"Though containment efforts are being made, it is windy in the area again and the leak is spreading."

Ushuaia may not be able to free itself from the rocks, and has at least one hole, Bowermaster added.

"A sinking ship in this pristine, narrow channel would have long-lasting impact on both the local environment and the future of tourism along the [Antarctic] Peninsula."

"Accident Waiting to Happen"

In addition to the 2007 sinking of the M.S. Explorer, another ship—the Norwegian M.S. Fram—lost engine power during an electrical outage in December 2007 and struck a glacier, smashing a lifeboat but causing no injuries among its 300 passengers.

A boom in Antarctic tourism may be an "accident waiting to happen," Bowermaster told National Geographic News in 2007.

More than 30,000 tourists were estimated to have made the trek to Antarctica on some 50 different ships during the November 2007 to February 2008 cruise season, according to the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators, a trade group.

"A big question for those who oversee and monitor tourism in Antarctica is [whether] there be limits on who can visit Antarctica, and on what kind of ship?" Bowermaster added.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Antarctic: Where death is only five minutes away
Tourists on a stricken Antarctic cruise found themselves at the mercy of the nature they came to witness

Simon Calder, The Independent 6 Dec 08;

At the edge of the world, survival is counted in minutes – on the fingers of one hand. Anyone immersed in the Southern Ocean without special equipment could perish within two minutes; death is a certainty after five. Accordingly, vessels involved in lucrative polar-tourism in the volatile seas around Antarctica share a sophisticated emergency planning network.

Within minutes of the Ushuaia running aground at Wilhelmina Bay on the Antarctic Peninsula on Thursday, the Chilean navy dispatched a tug to refloat the stricken Argentinian vessel, plus a support ship to take on the passengers. Seven vessels offered assistance to the captainand the nearest sped to the scene, in case conditions worsened. Her name: Antarctic Dream.

For many, the Antarctic dream sums up the ultimate in travel. Life around the world's coldest continent is reduced to its most elemental: rock, ice and water collide under a sky that bears the bitterest winds on Earth.

I am writing aboard the Akademik Sergei Vavilov, a Russian research ship that was converted to tourism when communism went out of fashion.The 100 passengers are mostly British, traversing the Southern Ocean. At noon, she was nearing Cape Disappointment in South Georgia. As the captain nudged her between two icebergs the size of apartment blocks, lunch was called. Passengers faced the difficult choice of scampi, stir-fried beef or scenery that Sir Ernest Shackleton – the greatest polar explorer - described as "God in his splendours".

This unforgiving region is rich in wildlife, yet defines the phrase "unfit for human habitation" – all part of the extreme appeal of Antarctica, and why 100 lucky souls have stumped up £7,500 each to achieve their southern dream. The holiday began in Ushuaia, Argentina, which calls itself "The End of the World, and the Beginning of Everything". Next month, at the height of the season, about 30 tourist ships will set sail from South America, destination the deepest south.

A century ago, Shackleton was on his first unsuccessful bid to reach the South Pole; today, Antarctica features in many a glossy brochure. Since man began to discover the lands and seas below 50 degrees South, exploration has been followed by exploitation.

Captain James Cook's reports of prolific seal life in South Georgia led quickly to a massacre of the mammals on an industrial scale. In the 20th century, it was the turn of the whale: 175,000 were taken in the six decades rom 1904. The rusting, rotting relics of these murderous trades now comprise visitor attractions, carefully governed by the rules aimed at ensuring tourism remains benign.

After the Ushuaia went aground on Thursday, an Argentinian aircraft was dispatched to monitor the resulting oil spill. The impact on the chinstrap penguins and blue-eyed shags in the vicinity is likely to be negligible.

Nevertheless, a second incident in successive years involving an expedition ship – in 2007, the Explorer sank off the South Shetland Islands – will raise concerns about the risks to the environment and human life.

One of the worst accidents in aviation history occurred in Antarctica; in 1979, a New Zealand sightseeing flight crashed into Mount Erebus, killing 257. Marine tourism has so far proved fatality-free but addictive. Russell Millner, a surgeon from Blackpool, is on his second visit, drawn by "the unspoilt beauty, the space, the things you can't see anywhere else in the world". As Shackleton wrote after his Antarctic adventures: "We had reached the naked soul of man".