Antarctica

• Wednesday, November 18th 2009 - 13:57 UTC

  Russian cruise vessel breaks free of the ice and heads for Ushuaia

  

  An expedition vessel with 184 passengers and crew onboard -- including 51 British guests and a BBC film crew-- is on the move again after being wedged in the ice of Antarctica's Weddell Sea since Friday.

• Tuesday, November 17th 2009 - 09:05 UTC

  Plan to recover two crates of Shackleton’s whisky buried in Antarctica

  

  Explorers are planning to recover a rare batch of whisky lost during explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton's ill-fated voyage to the South Pole a century ago. Two crates of the now extinct “Rare Old” brand of McKinlay and Co whisky have been buried in the Antarctic ice since Shackleton was forced to abandon his polar mission in 1909.

• Monday, November 16th 2009 - 21:06 UTC

  Captain Khlebnikov stranded with 105 passengers in Antarctic ice

  

  The Captain Khlebnikov (*) icebreaker of the Far East Shipping Company (FESCO) has stranded in the Antarctic ice.

• Monday, November 16th 2009 - 19:57 UTC

  New Chairman for South Georgia Association

  

  The South Georgia Association has announced the name of its new chairman.
  He is Professor David J. Drewry, a former director of the Scott Polar Research Institute and of the British Antarctic Survey and Director General of the British Council, who has recently retired as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hull.

• Friday, November 13th 2009 - 15:01 UTC

  Huge iceberg spotted floating towards New Zealand

  

  A giant iceberg twice as long as a US Navy nuclear powered aircraft carrier has been spotted floating towards New Zealand.

• Thursday, November 12th 2009 - 07:49 UTC

  South Georgia expects 65 cruise calls this season; “Ushuaia” was the first

  

  South Georgia received the first cruise ship of the season “Ushuaia” October 6th when she arrived at Grytviken. The Panamanian flagged vessel operated by Argentina’s Antarpply Expeditions, based returned on a separate cruise on the 27th.

• Wednesday, November 11th 2009 - 04:26 UTC

  UK proposal turns south of South Orkney Islands a Marine Protected Area

  

  The British Government announced on Tuesday an ambitious plan at enhancing environmental protection of the world’s oceans and the Antarctic and including the designation of the world first “high seas” marine protected area south of the South Orkney Islands (once a Falklands dependency).

• Tuesday, November 10th 2009 - 11:37 UTC

  Phytoplankton flourishes in Antarctic open areas of water where ice retreated

  

  Large blooms of tiny marine plants called phytoplankton are flourishing in areas of open water left exposed by the recent and rapid melting of ice shelves and glaciers around the Antarctic Peninsula.

• Tuesday, November 3rd 2009 - 11:15 UTC

  Buenos Aires looking forward to a “very good cruise season”

  

  Buenos Aires City is looking forward to what it considers a “very good cruise season” with the number of visitors increasing 11% and the number of calls 15%, according to Hernán Lombardi Minister of Culture and Tourism of the Argentine capital.

• Monday, November 2nd 2009 - 14:09 UTC

  Antarctica cruise season begins in Ushuaia; 225 calls anticipated this year

  

  With the departure last week of icebreaker “Kapitan Khlebnikov” (*), Ushuaia marked the beginning of the Antarctica cruise season. Located in the extreme south of Argentina Ushuaia has become the gateway for Antarctic cruises virtually monopolizing 92% of the traffic