The Antarctic tourist ship “Polar Star” is apparently stable after striking “an uncharted” rock off Detaille Island yesterday, several hundred miles down the Antarctic Peninsula. According to Captain Jacke Majer and a press release from the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO) the ship’s outer hull was breeched.
Though free of the rock and reporting no oil leak, its inner hull apparently undamaged, booms were deployed around the ship to mediate any potential spill.
The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that the ship’s passengers are being off-loaded by the Argentine Army.
The South Atlantic News Agency MercoPress reports that the accident happened early Monday in the Matha Strait, north of 67 South, west of the Antarctica peninsula.
“Apparently the cruise vessel ran onto a non-charted rock but managed to pull itself free with no major consequences because of its double hull.
“Any rescue or salvage operation is now in the hands of the Search and Rescue Coordination Centre in Punta Arenas, Chile, in the framework of the Argentine-Chilean Joint naval Antarctic Patrolling.”
There are 80 passengers and 35 crew aboard the 250-foot-long, Bahamas-flagged ship, which is owned and operated by Halifax-based Karlsen Shipping.
The “Polar Star” departed the tip of South America last week for a ten-day adventure and was expected back at port in Ushuaia, Argentina, on February 6.
In mid-December we reported on a South Korean fishing boat that had sunk off the coast of Antarctica while in (illegal) pursuit of Patagonia toothfish. At least 17 fishermen, many of them Vietnamese, drowned.
I’ve been following the story since and reading the obituaries of some of the fishermen who were recovered, as they’ve been posted.
Like that of Nguyen Tuong, for example, whose body was returned to his home in the central province of Ha Tinh to be buried. His family suffered a great loss but got lucky in one respect: Nguyen’s return was accompanied by a payment of $16,000 from the LOD Human Resource Development Corporation, a Hanoi-based employment company, which provide workers to international fishing fleets.
Nguyen’s worth at death was far more than what he earned at sea; other reports suggest that he and his fellow fishermen aboard the “Sung No. 1” were little more than slaves, working for next to nothing.
(LOD’s Facebook page says it specializes in “labour export, commodities import, and passenger transport.” Another site listing “employment agencies” in Vietnam, explains that LOD’s main job since 1992 is as a “Fishing Crew Export Corporation.”)
But news reports from New Zealand following the sinking of the South Korean fishing ship detail that those employed were working for slave wages – between $270 and $1,350 for up to three months’ work, or $3 to $15 per day.
(For the rest of my dispatch go to takepart.com)
I hadn’t thought much about baptism since the last time I watched “The Godfather” until I saw a photo last week of 29 Marines (the Ohio-based 3rd Battalion, 25th Regiment) on the verge of setting off for Afghanistan being given full rites in the Pacific Ocean near Camp Pendleton.
Which made me wonder exactly how many people use the ocean for baptism … and where did the notion of being plunged underwater to affirm ones Christian beliefs come from anyway?
Marines interviewed said they believed the rite would help them “perform our job the way we need to in a very challenging environment” and bring them home safely. Initially I thought their Sunday morning full-submersions — administered by the battalion’s commander and part of what he dubbed Operation Sword of the Spirit, a program meant to prepare the battalion for duty in the Taliban stronghold of Helmand province — was unusual. (The widely promoted event angered some Marines in Afghanistan, who saw it as ready-made p.r. for the Taliban to use to pump up a “Holy War” theme.)
But the almighty Google proved that notion wrong. Apparently many times a week somewhere along the edge of the country – from Ocean Grove and Pacific Palisades in California to the sand beaches of Florida and New Jersey – Christians, both adults and children, walk voluntarily into the sea to have their beliefs affirmed.
Typical mass-baptism announcements are abundant and include the Where (Pier Ave and the Strand, Hermosa Beach); the Date (July 11, 2010); the Time (3 p.m.), the Features (kids, open to all, volunteer) and Dress Code (ladies, wear dark t-shirt and shorts over your swim suit; guys, please wear a t-shirt and swim trunks).
(For the rest of my dispatch go to takepart.com)
I’ve had several email exchanges with my friend David de Rothschild as he and the “Plastiki” move under tow along the coast of Australia, towards its final stop of Sydney. That 400 mile part of the trip concludes this weekend and the plastic-bottle boat will rest at dock there until it is recycled.
Reports on the boat’s last day at sea were confused, the reporting from Australia varied – was the “Plastiki” “rescued,” did the crew send out a “distress call” – and David wants to make it clear that nothing out of the ordinary happened last Saturday off the coast of Australia.
“We never sent a distress signal, we paid for a charter to pick us up as was always the plan.”
The sail was a remarkable success and we wait news from DdR regarding plans for both the catamaran and his next adventure.
An emotional David de Rothschild called in this afternoon from the coast of Australia, officially announcing that he and the crew of the Plastiki are safely ashore in Australia 122 days after sailing away from its dock in Marin County.
"Plastiki" Skipper Jo Royle
His emotions rode high due to the near-completion of the nearly 8,000 nautical mile voyage aboard his 60-foot catamaran built from 12,500 plastic bottles but also because it has been widely and falsely reported, according to him, that the Plastiki had to be rescued and towed to safety.
Late on Saturday, 200 miles off the port of Mooloolaba in Queensland, a few days sail north of the boat’s planned goal of Coffs Harbour in New South Wales, the Plastiki sent a distress signal, calling for a tow. According to DdR, they had always planned on a charter boat escort to help the Plastiki into port, as they had at other stops since leaving the U.S. in March. Previous stops took them to ports in Samoa and New Caledonia.
Skipper Jo Royle and de Rothschild are the first to admit that their one-of-a-kind boat is slow, not the most maneuverable craft, especially close to shore. On Saturday around 5 p.m. they were encountering a particularly strong Tasman Sea, which threatened to be too much for the boat’s small motor.
“The Plastiki’s quite a difficult boat to sail, she can’t tack she can only jibe. She’s a catamaran,” said Royle.
(For the rest of my dispatch, go to takepart.com)
Japan’s whaling ships have returned home from the Southern Ocean and are reporting the smallest take in years. Many, including the fleet’s leader, blame Sea Shepherd’s continual harassment for the deficit … which the Washington-state-based environmental group is happy to take credit for.
“We hit them long and hard this year and all our efforts and risks have paid off,” said Captain Paul Watson. “There are now 528 whales swimming freely in the Southern Ocean that would now be dead if not for the fact that we intervened. It is a happy day for my crew and I and conservationists worldwide, a happy day indeed.”
The take of both 507 was about half of last year’s hunt (935), the lowest numbers since the 2006-2007 season. The fleet’s leaders were said to be “furious” with Watson and his merry band, suggesting they would do anything – including leaving oil and boat parts behind in the Southern Ocean (a result of a collision between one of the Japanese whalers and Sea Shepherd’s high-end chase boat, the Ady Gil.
Coincidentally a decline in demand in Japan for whale meat has left the country with a nearly 5,000 ton surplus, which will be increased by the 1,800 tons brought home this season.
At the start of the season I talked with Watson about his hopes for the campaign.
Jon Bowermaster: Has your current campaign in the Southern Ocean been successful?
Captain Paul Watson: I believe it has been successful. Our strategy is an economic one. I don’t believe the Japanese whalers will back off on moral, ethical or scientific grounds but they will quit if they lose the one thing that is of most value to them – their profits. Our objective is to sink the Japanese whaling fleet – economically, to bankrupt them and we are doing that.
We have slashed their kill quotas in half over the last three years and negated their profits. They are tens of millions of dollars in debt on their repayment schedule for Japanese government subsidies. The newly elected Japanese government has pledged to cut their subsidies. I am actually confident that we can shut them down this year. They are on the ropes financially.
JB: How do you measure success? Fewer whales taken by Japanese? Other signs??
CPW: Of their quota of 935 Minke whales last year they fell short by 304. Of their quota of 50 Fin whales, they took only one. The year before they only took half their quota and in the last three years did not kill enough whales to break even so have been operating at a loss. We have also exposed their illegal whaling activities to the world and initiated a controversy and a discussion on whaling in the Japanese media.
JB: How do the Japanese continue to get away with the whale hunt when so many things say they shouldn’t, i.e. the Antarctica Treaty forbidding commerce below sixty degrees south latitude and the International Whaling Commission’s ban on all whaling?
CPW: There is a lack of economic and political motivation on the part of governments to enforce international conservation law. The Japanese whalers are targeting endangered and protected whales inside the boundaries of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary in violation of a global moratorium on commercial whaling, in violation of the Antarctic Treaty that prohibits commercial activity south of sixty degrees and they are in contempt of the Australian Federal Court for continuing to kill whales in the Australian Antarctic Economic Exclusion Zone. There is no difference between Japanese whale poachers in Antarctica and elephant poachers in East Africa except that the Africans are black and impoverished.
JB: Do you know what the reaction among Japanese people – not scientists, not government – is towards the continued whale hunts?
CPW: I’m not actually concerned. I’m Canadian and the majority of Canadians are opposed to the commercial slaughter of seals but the Canadian government subsidizes it nonetheless. I believe it is a myth that once the people of a nation oppose something that things will change. First, most people are apathetic and could not care one way or another. Secondly, the pro-whalers have an economic motivation to lobby for continued whaling and thirdly in Japan it is considered inappropriate to oppose government or corporate policy. I’ve always felt that educating the Japanese public was a waste of time and smacks of cultural chauvinism. The fact is that whaling is illegal and we intervene for that reason and the key to ending it is the negation of profits.
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