Explorer II = Minerva; Alexander von Humboldt II = Jules Verne

It used to be so simple:

"Explorer" was the former "Lindblad Explorer" that turned into "Society Explorer" and finally "GAP Explorer" or simply "Explorer".

Then there was "Explorer II", which was at times also "Alexander von Humboldt" when it was operated by Phoenix Reisen. Otherwise Abercrombie & Kent would call her "Explorer II", simply because they used to charter the original "Explorer" before.

But now Phoenix Reisen does not charter the same vessel any more, so one would think that A & K have it all to themselves.

But wait: while Phoenix Reisen is now chartering the "Jules Verne" - calling her "Alexander von Humboldt II" - the new owners of the vessel, Swan Hellenic have come up with an idea: why not rename "Explorer II" into "Minerva" (again)?

Meanwhile, the original "Explorer" is assumed to have sunk, while the expedition cruiser "Alexander von Humboldt" simply ceased to exist...

And did I mention that the previous operator of the "Explorer", Lindblad Expeditions, is now refitting a former Hurtigruten ship, the former Lyngen, and they will call her National Geographic Explorer.

As usual, Wikipedia helps solve these and other riddles. Here is a list of cruise ships, replete with dates and previous names!

Stricter regulations on Svalbard cruise traffic

Quote from the Governor of Svalbard's website:

"The Governor of Svalbard hereby notifies that changes are being proposed to ”The Regulations concerning the establishment of bird reserves and large nature conservation areas in Svalbard” of 1st July 1973, last amended on 1st June 2007. The process will follow the standard case procedure regulations as determined in the Svalbard Environmental Protection Act §13.

In short, the topics for the revisions mentioned above are:

1) For North-west Spitsbergen, Forlandet and South Spitsbergen national parks, it has been proposed to amend the conservation regulations such that fuel quality carried and brought on board ships and other vessels sailing within the boundaries of the above named national parks will be subject to regulation. We refer to the introduction of the regulations from 1st June 2007 for vessels sailing within North-east Svalbard and South-east Svalbard nature reserves.

2) Introduction of travel restrictions at three automatically protected cultural heritage sites in North-west Spitsbergen and one automatically protected cultural heritage site in South-Spitsbergen national park is being considered.

3) For North-east Svalbard and South-east Svalbard nature reserves, amendments may be proposed to the conservation regulations so that going ashore from cruise ships/cruise vessels will be allowed on specific locations or in specific areas only
(fixed disembarkation areas/locations).








4) It is being considered to introduce travel restrictions at Midterhuken, Bellsund, an automatically protected cultural heritage site. Such regulations will be made pursuant to the Svalbard Environmental Protection Act §42 and Public Administration Act §37.

The deadline for receipt of comments and observations relative to the above proposals is decemver 20th 2007.

On the basis of comments received and the subsequent process, the Governor will draft formal discussion documents. The discussion documents will be presented at a hearing in the spring of 2008.

Svalbard Feltlogg - Field log

Beginning this November, the Svalbard Feltlogg (Field Log) will publish new warnings, messages etc. in both Norwegian and English. This log is a service supported by the Governor of Svalbard and Svalbard Reiseliv a/s (Svalbard Tourism), with contributions from local tour operators and the University Center in Svalbard, UNIS.

You can log in, subscribe and receive notification emails.

Official IAATO statement on sinking of Explorer

The International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO) has issued an official statement summing up the reported events of the M/V Explorer incident, indicating that there is still some uncertainty as to whether or not that ship has actually sunk. Apparently, there were no direct eye witnesses of the sinking, and so it might still be floating - upside down - and thus pose a serious navigational hazard.

All member vessels are requested to keep a keen lookout around the position of 62° 23' 32" S, 57° 16' 09" W, the position from which the distress call was issued. Also, any flotsam or debris on beaches in the area should be reported.

All the passengers and ship's crew have been put ashore on King George Island, where they were received in several scientific stations there and subsequently flown out by chartered plane to Punta Arenas, Chile.

One day after the evacuation and rescue of Explorer's crew and passengers, the Oceanwide Expeditions vessel M/V Professor Molchanov patrolled the area and reported an oil spill of approximately 1 square nm around 62° 24' S 57° 12' W.

The M/V Explorer was stated to burn marine gas oil (MGO) as fuel oil and it is hoped and expected that this fuel will disperse quickly without serious adverse effects to the environment.

Polar Bear Knut - the sibling sequel?

Knut, the Berlin Zoo's well-known polar bear, may soon have as many as three little siblings before Christmas, the zoo's veterinarian said Friday.

Knut's mother, Tosca, and the zoo's two other female polar bears, Katjuscha and Nancy, may all be pregnant after mating earlier this year with Knut's father, Lars, and could give birth before the end of December, according to veterinarian Andre Schuele.

But polar bear pregnancies are hard to detect and to track. Tests like those humans use do not work, and polar bear embryos are so small the mothers do not grow big tummies.

The zoo is hopeful enough, however, to have built three special caves for the female polar bears to use to give birth.

Little Red Ship has sunk

According to Chilean Navy reports, the M/V Explorer has disappeared from view and is assumed to have sunk.

Following reports of the maritime distress call and subsequent rescue by the Norwegian M/S Nordnorge, the media picked up reports related to inspections this May by the British Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) at Greenock, Scotland, as well as by Chilean port authorities in Puerto Natales in March.



The MCA found that the MS Explorer had five deficiencies, including missing search and rescue plans and lifeboat maintenance problems. However, according to MCA spokesman Mark Clarke, they had all been rectified by the time the ship set sail again. Earlier this year, Chilean port state control inspectors had found six deficiencies during an inspection of the ship. These included two related to safety of navigation matters. However, since this inspection preceded the MCA inspection, one can assume that they had been dealt with by the time the ship commenced its 2007 Antarctic season. Classification society Det Norske Veritas issued a passenger safety certificate for the vessel on October 21.



Although the vessel had older, open-type lifeboats rather than the more modern closed lifeboats, this was not in violation of any current maritime regulation and as this event showed, even open inflatables were used successfully in this abandon ship operation.

"Little Red Ship" Explorer abandoned after collision

The cruise ship "Explorer", formerly known and famous as "Lindblad Explorer" or affectionately called "the little red ship" has today issued a maritime distress call after what appears to have been an iceberg collision near King George Island, South Shetlands, Antarctica. All passengers and crew have abandoned ship and have been transferred to the Norwegian Hurtigruten vessel M/S Nordnorge, which also serves as an Antarctic cruise ship during austral summer months.



The "Explorer" was built 1969 in Nystad, Finland for a Norwegian company, K/S A/S Explorer & Co, Oslo, Norway. It had been especially designed as ice-strengthened cruise ship and is one of the pioneering vessels of polar expedition cruising.

In 1972 the ship was already involved in a shipping desaster in the very same area in Antarctica, namely King George Island, when it ran aground at Punta la Plaza/Plaza Point (62°05'S 58°22'W). It was abandoned by its crew and could be salvaged only about two weeks later, by the German tug boat "Arctic". Following that incident, it was sold to new owners, United Cruising Co Ltd (also known as "Svenska Amerika Linien") who repaired her and put her back into traffic.



The vessel changed owners, names, flags and homeports repeatedly during the 80's and received a major overhaul in 1985 in Singapore as well as another overhaul in 1993. In 1989 it was also in the headlines as it assisted in the "Bahia Paradiso" shipping disaster where the Argentine supply vessel sank near the USAP base Palmer Station on Anvers Island.

It became quite famous as "Lindblad Explorer", named after the Swedish polar tourism pioneer Lars Eric Lindblad who together with his son Sven Olof Lindblad pioneered in expedition travel, both shipborne and overland. Their company has since developed into a partnership with National Geographic and currently operates a fleet of 6 National Geographic vessels. Ironically, the newest addition to their fleet, the National Geographic Explorer, is going to be a refitted Hurtigruten ship, the former Lyngen.

In 2004, the original Explorer/Lindblad Explorer was purchased by GAP Adventures, Toronto and received yet another major overhaul in Genoa, Italy. Already the 2004/05 Antarctic season it was back in traffic again. Since then it has resumed cruising the Antarctic Peninsula, the Amazonas, the European and Canadian Arctic.



It seems as if this vessel has finally been forced to end its long and adventurous career.

P.S.: Another ironic coincidence about the role of the Hurtigruten ships in Antarctic expedition cruising: in February this year (2007) the sister ship of M/S Nordnorge, the M/S Nordkapp, ran aground near Deception Island and had to transfer her passengers to M/S Nordnorge.

P.P.S.: During the initial rescue and relief effort for the "Explorer", she also received assistance by her replacement of Lindblad Expeditions, the National Geographic Endeavour.

UPDATE: Explorer has sunk

First allocation of fundings from Svalbard's environmental protection fund

(republished after Svalbard Science Forum homepage - news)

At 1 October 2007, the deadline for the first announcement of Svalbard's environmental protection fund, 26 different applicants had submitted 42 proposals for diverse projects and initiatives related to environmental protection in Svalbard. The total sum applied for was 11.2 Mio NOK and 46.4 % of the applications were research related.

The board of the fund has now allocated in total 1.7 Mio NOK to 15 projects and initiatives. Of these 15 projects 38% were research projects with a total sum of 640.000 NOK.

The Svalbard's environmental protection fund is pursuant to the Svalbard Environmental Protection Act. The fund's resources are used for projects and initiatives with the purpose of protecting the environment. The fund is financed by dues and funding allocation is dependant upon the income. The sources of income are the environment fee, fees fro hunting and fishing cards, the value of the flora and fauna which is handled in violation of the Svalbard environmental law and environmental compensations and enforced penalties set by The Governor of Svalbard.

The fund announces twice a year a call of proposals.

Click here to download the full list of accepted and denied proposals, with the respective sums applied for and granted. You can also find the file on my download pages.

More stuff on post-PhD perspectives

Proceedings of the 2007 International Polar Diving Workshop available

The Smithsonian Institute's Scientific Diving Program has recently held an international workshop on Polar Diving in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard. The proceedings are now available here and I have also uploaded them on my own website's download section.

Here is an overview of the contents of this proceedings issue:




Interestingly, the workshop also covered the "USCGC Healy Diving Mishap" where two US coast guard divers died during an under-ice dive. According to the report, there were several serious and hair-raising issues with the divers' qualifications, the site and dive supervision, inadequate training of dive tenders (who apparently were also consuming alcohol), extraordinary amounts of lead weights used by divers ("... in excess of 60 pounds...") and the list just goes on.
As I had blogged a while after the incident, this had also some serious consequences for the commanding officer of the USCGC Healy (see original posting here).

But the proceedings also specify the national requirements for ice diving for the various polar research programs:





Although it is a pretty thick volume to read through, it definitely contains lots of valuable information on polar diving, and not only for scientific diving applications but also for the recreational diver or even underwater photographers.

DEMA show 2007 - Orlando

Last week, the "Diving Equipment & Marketing Association" (DEMA) held their annual trade fair at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. This event is the industry's only international trade-only event and regularly features new product showcases, new destinations, and new companies.



Oceanwide Expeditions has traditionally been one of the exhibitors at the show, and this year I was invited to join the US staff at the booth and to give the seminar presentations on Oceanwide's polar diving activities.



To give you a feeling for the size of the event, here is a floorplan (Oceanwide's booth is marked with a red circle).



Apart from the two seminar presentations, we had to man the booth during opening hours, meet with long-time clients as well as potential future business partners and offer information, brochures and in-depth information (no pun intended ;-) about our diving operations.



Here you can see Marina (Oceanwide's US office) and Michel (Oceanwide's executive director) at our booth.

We had a quite successful show, all things considered, and have been able to establish some very interesting contacts as well as renewed some previous contacts with tour operators and agents. This was not a customer event and there were almost no items on display or for purchase. Such trade-only events seem mostly about number-crunching and hand-shaking and not so much about buying or selling, but I was able to check out some new products and make some contacts with equipment manufacturers in between presentations.

One of the most interesting things to see during the show were the new Poseidon Cis-Lunar Mk VI rebreather which is a remarkably compact and lightweight unit.



It also bears strange resemblance to the Seaway CORA II rebreather which I was able to test dive last year in prototype version. Unfortunately this unit never really made it into full production and sales, the company seems to have disappeared or at least its internet presence is suspended (site under construction).

Another interesting bit of news is the Poseidon Flexisuit which is hoped to appeal to the advanced rebreather and technical diver community. I tried it, it is extremely soft and flexible, but for my taset even TOO soft and TOO flexible.

But a front-entry zip has of course always en vogue in the tech/rb community so I guess this suit is going to be a hit (just not with me). Here is a picture:



Another exciting new product which unfortunately was not quite ready yet for the market is the OTS full-face mask. Unfortunately, I was not able to take a picture but it resembles pretty much the Interspiro (AGA) mask that everybody knows as the "gold standard" for lightweight FFM's.



Interspiro Divator

But the guys at OTS had the ambition to make an even better FFM so they pulled up a list of issues that users have had with the IS Divator mask:

• bad fit for small/narrow faces
• regulator is permanently attached to FFM body
• regulator comes from the left (as is usual in rescue/recovery, professional and firefighter masks, but not in sports diving)
• mask body has quite large volume above the oral/nasal cavity (thus often requires counterweights attached to the sides)
• quite highly priced

So they tried to fix it, and here is what they came up with (so sorry, still only text):

• double latex seal for improved fit
• detacheable regulator (p-connector with release button inside)
• regulator can be mounted from left or right
• mask body with smaller volume (only slightly, but they say it makes a difference...)
• roughly 50% of the retail price of the IS Divator (but shipping will start approx. in 6 months, so who knows...)

On top of that they have decided to offer it in a range of attractive color combinations... ;-)






I ended up not buying (or rather, ordering) a mask from them yet, as they admitted that it would still need a couple of rounds of serious tests and "some small adjustments and improvements".

But it looks like as if I will be going to the DEMA 2008 as well, next year it will be in Las Vegas, and by then they promised to have the mask ready and shipping!

Images of OTS FFM prototypes by remi, Hareid Sub Sea, originally posted at www.dykkesiden.no.