MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Icebreaker ARA Irízar ready to start Summer Antarctic Campaign

“We will be setting sail between Friday and Saturday depending on the weather conditions,” Captain Recio said

Argentine Navy's icebreaker ARA Almirante Irízar was ordered Thursday to set sail with over 300 people onboard among military and scientific personnel, marking the official beginning of the 2022/23 Summer Antarctic campaign. The Irízar's mission will consist of three stages until April 2023.

 “It is a very important scientific, logistic and sovereignty-affirming campaign,” Defense Minister Jorge Taiana said during the ceremony at the Buenos Aires Naval Station. “We are working on the environmental presentation to the Antarctic Treaty; we are going to work on setting up the antennas that will be in Belgrano II, our southernmost base, and through which the Conae satellites that will provide a lot of information will pass”, added the Minister.

Taiana also pointed out that among the objectives of the campaign will also be to continue with the classified Antarctic Waste Evacuation Plan. He also highlighted the “great” contribution of the Health Ministry for the deployment of personnel in such “an isolated and hostile place.” The minister also underlined that the current campaign will for the first time have a female head and deputy head of base.

The Minister also opened a new reading space in the Irízar's library dedicated to the “Malvinas Question,” to promote and disseminate the “Malvinas 40 Years Agenda.”

Science Minister Filmus highlighted the importance of the campaign because there are “interdisciplinary issues that have to do with Argentine interests, but also with a feeling that humanity has regarding the need to preserve the Antarctic territory and make it sustainable.” Argentina “will be the only country in the world receiving satellite images from our own satellites,” Filmus said regarding new antennas at the Belgrano II base. “Science reaffirms sovereignty,” he stressed.

According to the Defense Ministry, the Irízar's campaign is divided into three stages delivering supplies and staff to the seven permanent bases (Esperanza, Marambio, San Martín, Orcadas, Carlini, Belgrano II, and Petrel); and the six seasonal ones operating only during the summer: Matienzo, Brown, Decepción, Primavera, Cámara, and Melchior.

“We will be setting sail between Friday and Saturday depending on the weather conditions. We are finalizing the last cargo and food shipments,” Irízar Captain Carlos Recio told Télam. “We are the ones who allow Argentina to be a bicontinental country since we operate both in the American continent and in the Argentine Antarctic,” he added.

The Irízar was built in 1978 in Finland and has a 12-story building, seven stories above the water and five below. “Today it is the only icebreaker with cargo capacity in the world,” Recio assured.

The Antarctic Summer Campaign will last 120 days. The icebreaker was loaded with 3,400,000 liters of fuel.