Antarctica

• Sunday, March 18th 2012 - 19:50 UTC

  HMS Illustrious, command ship in tough Arctic weather training

  

  Royal Navy helicopter carrier HMS Illustrious is in the midst of NATO Exercise Cold Response, based in the Arctic. Illustrious is the command ship for Major General Ed Davis, Commandant General Royal Marines, who, with his Commander Amphibious Forces staff, is directing the movements of allied warships.

• Wednesday, March 14th 2012 - 01:54 UTC

  Heroic Age remembered in Punta Arenas

  

  Three plaques remembering prominent explorers of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Discovery, who used the Chilean port of Punta Arenas as their home base when carrying out Antarctic explorations, have been unveiled at the entrance to the Arturo Prat port terminal in downtown Punta Arenas.

• Tuesday, March 13th 2012 - 12:26 UTC

  New Oceanites Antarctic Compendium Available

  

  Ron Naveen, President of Oceanites, announced that the new compendium, covering 142 different sites on the Antarctic Peninsula, can now be downloaded in PDF format at no cost.

• Monday, March 12th 2012 - 07:56 UTC

  Workers for Antarctica sought

  

  The United Kingdom Antarctica Heritage Fund UKAHT (http://www.ukaht.org/) is seeking new candidates to work at Port Lockroy for the 2012/2013 season. Deadline for applications is at 12 noon on the 30th March.

• Sunday, March 11th 2012 - 14:07 UTC

  Argentine Jubany Station renamed.

  

  At a ceremony held in Government House President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner announced the renaming of the Jubany Scientific Station in Antarctica, now to be known as Carlini Station, in memory of biologist Alejandro Carlini who died in 2010.

• Saturday, March 10th 2012 - 05:26 UTC

  South Georgia Marine Protected Area covers over one million sq kilometres

  

  One of the worlds largest Marine Protected Areas (MPA) has been created around South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, waters that are amongst the most productive in the Southern Ocean. The SGSSI MPA, which was declared on February 27th, covers more than 1 million km². The report is from the South Georgia Newsletter, February edition.

• Friday, March 9th 2012 - 03:04 UTC

  Brazil to invest 22 million dollars to rebuild Antarctic station destroyed by fire

  

  Brazil approved the allocation of 40 million Reais (approx 22 million dollars) to rebuild and modernize the country’s Antarctic research station Comandante Ferraz which was destroyed during a fire last month.

• Wednesday, March 7th 2012 - 17:25 UTC

  Argentina to demand a review of the South Atlantic fisheries agreement

  

  President Cristina Fernandez announced that Argentina will request the review of the South Atlantic fisheries agreement, because the UK and the Falklands are not abiding by the ‘protocols’ signed in the early nineties.

• Wednesday, March 7th 2012 - 17:18 UTC

  Gibraltar Port Authority attends Seatrade Cruise Convention in Miami

  

  The Gibraltar Port Authority is participating in the Seatrade Cruise Shipping Convention which takes place in Miami between the 12th and 15th March 2012.

• Wednesday, March 7th 2012 - 16:55 UTC

  Invasive species threaten Antarctica; climate change and visitors boom blamed

  

  Antarctic tourists and scientists may be inadvertently seeding the icy continent with invasive species, a new study says. Foreign plants such as annual bluegrass are establishing themselves on Antarctica, whose status as the coldest and driest continent had long made it one of the most pristine environments on Earth.