10 years of Antarctic protection!
The Nisshin Maru is still going at high speed in front of us, and no whales have been killed since we met them.
On this date in 1998 Greenpeace celebrated the result of many years of hard work: An international agreement came into force, protecting the Antarctic continent from oil and minerals exploitation for the next five decades. Sara describes what the Madrid Protocol really protects.
By Sara, onboard the Esperanza
The sea is getting a bit rougher!
©Greenpeace/Jiri Rezac
No sand, rarely sun and with not a camel in sight (!), but Antarctica, all 14 million squared ice-bound kilometres - is indeed the largest desert on Earth.
Studded with mountains, underground lakes and volcanoes it is far from being a flat frozen wasteland. Many of the creatures that call Antarctica home are found nowhere else.
Seasonally the continent swells and recedes as it extends it frozen grip over the water each winter, then slowly releases the melting seas when summer arrives.
90% of the world's ice and two thirds of the planet's fresh water are in Antarctica. Yet it is the driest, coldest and windiest place on earth, where a record-breaking, mind and body numbing -89 degrees Celcius has been measured.
People are seasonal too - Antarctica has no permanent residents. The first date we can be certain that humans even set eyes on Antarctica was as recent at 1820. Now around 4,000 scientists travel to the ice and back each year.
And that is just the land that I've been talking about. For me the waters around Antarctica are mesmerizing. The waves running before the ship sometimes take on a ghostly shadow as the surface ripples. Whitecaps deceive the eye and when the storms come the sheer scale and force of the water l makes even the sturdiest ship feel fragile.
But when the ship arrives at the ice, the Southern Ocean takes on a wholly different and beautiful mantle. The patterns over the sea are more masterly than the most skilled sculpter could create. As it starts to freeze the water takes on an oily look, moving with a slow, rhythmic fluidity. Then as crystal upon crystal connect and freeze together to create a carpet of ice.
And the icebergs - well, what can you write about these monoliths that have been weathered by wind and water that can do them justice? I never tire of them. The purest white slopes are sometimes speckled with Antarctic birds such as snow and Antarctic petrels, while brilliant contrast can be seen in the almost unnatural blue of others.
I could throw amazing facts and figures at you all day - but words cannot do it justice. Being able to witness Antarctica is awe-inspiring. We've had the benefit of seeing it for real - we hope you enjoy it too.
- Sara
"It is now 20 years since four Greenpeace volunteers became the first occupants of a small permanent base on the shore of Ross Island. This was for the next four years to be at the centre of Greenpeace's campaign, begun in earnest in 1985, to establish the region as a World Park."
A decade of Antarctic protection - why penguins don't wake up oilly
Comments
Dear All aboard Esperanza,
You are doing a fabulous job. I spend alot of time flicking through your site daily while sitting in my loungeroom back in Australia where it's 28C at 1230am. I envy you (and want to be standing next to you) to be in the Centre of that magnificant place but at the same time wonder how much I'd be crapping myself to be thrown around by Mother Nature so ficiously....I'd be scared. You are the few that stand out from the sheepish voices on land, like myself. That want to help but through life circumstances or fear we choose to watch you. We petition like hell or even email to our whole inbox every bit of info we get from you. That's not saying we are not important it's saying that ALL OF YOU ONBOARD are those people that shine amoungst us. You have a passion we dream of and you have a freedom we desire. CONGRATULATIONS ON FINDING WHAT SO MANY OF US DESIRE. FREEDOM.
Good luck, Happy snapping, and typing and video blogging, you are bringing a tiny slice of your experience to us at home and while we find ourselves watching you ALOT please send us lots more.
Cathie,
Brisbane, Australia
Posted by: Cathie - Brisbane | January 14, 2008 3:37 PM
It is a very good idea to remind people of the link in time between the moratorium on whaling and the campaign to designate the Antarctic continent as a world park
Posted by: Sidney Holt | January 14, 2008 4:31 PM
What about the hunter ships?? They are the ones killing whales, not the Nisshin. What if the hunters were back where you left them, hunting and hanging out with the Oriental Bluebird...? Whales are dying still.
Posted by: Aaron | January 15, 2008 12:04 AM
Hi Sara...,
...and thank you for this wonderful account via that very special charm of yours. I apoligize for my last post, ...it must have been a slip of the hand. I addressed my comment to Irene, when it was obviously you in the video explaining that Japan is not a country with whale meat everywhere you walk. ...and after all, you are a very familiar face to me, ...and as being the only one on my last year's tribute to the Esperanza twice on the page - http://www.gratefulchild.org/projects/gcweb/gc/html/onward/. Of course this song and video is playing and meant for you all there now as well.
As long as we're talking about Antarctica, did you read in the news that they've landed the first commercial airplane there, and on board for the first landing was none other than your friend and mine, Peter Garrett - http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/ver/251.6/popup/index.php?cl=5910783 Fortunately this will not include tourist flights, but only to cut five weeks of travel time for scientists to study the continent, and what is happening to it. Love to you and all there, ...GC
p.s. if possible, could you give us a little information about temperature, and what time it is where you are, in relation to Greenwich time? ...and is it mostly daylight there 24 hours a day? Just curious...
Posted by: Grateful Child | January 15, 2008 12:50 AM
sara, a beautiful description of the antarctic. i can close my eyes and only imagine how it looks and feels to be there.
Posted by: johnr | January 15, 2008 12:52 AM