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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, October 20th 2025 - 00:36 UTC

Antarctica

  • Monday, November 30th 2015 - 06:36 UTC

    Falklands based British Forces rescue cruise passenger injured in South Atlantic

    Clyde is pictured re-fuelling an RAF Sea King Search & Rescue Helicopter during a recent operation between The Falkland Islands and South Georgia. (MoD Pic)

    Royal Navy and Royal Air Force personnel based in the Falkland Islands have conducted a long range rescue of a British man from a Russian cruise ship. The MV Akademic Sergei Vavilov was visiting South Georgia, 800 nautical miles to the east of the Falklands, when the man was bitten by what is thought to have been a fur seal at Salisbury Plain Beach.

  • Thursday, November 26th 2015 - 17:39 UTC

    UK's Cammell Laird will build BAS new £200 million polar research ship

    Cammell Laird chief executive, John Syvret CBE, met with NERC chief operating officer Paul Fox (L) to seal the deal in Birkenhead

    The Birkenhead shipyard Cammell Laird said it saw off competition from Europe and beyond including Korea and Singapore to be selected as the preferred bidder to build a new vessel for the UK-funded Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). The contract was signed last week and it is expected that full production will start in June next year, and on completion the vessel will be operated by NERC’s British Antarctic Survey (BAS).

  • Wednesday, November 18th 2015 - 07:53 UTC

    Tierra del Fuego ozone alert with 'UV radiation reaching extreme risk or harm'

    According to the UV Index, a reading of 11 or more means extreme risk of harm from unprotected sun exposure several precautions must be taken

    Tierra del Fuego in south Argentina has sent out a warning to residents in the province that the ozone layer hole as it expands to the north, over the tip of South America continent this week, it will be reaching its maximum size with UV radiation at 12, violet or extreme alert. The information was provided by Argentina's VAG Ushuaia Station.

  • Monday, November 9th 2015 - 08:38 UTC

    Major exhibition of the Antarctic legacy of Sir Ernest Shackleton and Frank Hurley at the RGS

    The RGS exhibition ‘The Enduring Eye: The Antarctic Legacy of Sir Ernest Shackleton and Frank Hurley’ opens on November 21th.

    A major new exhibition on Shackleton’s Endurance Expedition will open at the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), London, on 21 November, with an off-shoot exhibition coming to South Georgia early in 2016. The exhibitions are inspired by the glass plate negatives taken by Endurance expedition photographer Frank Hurley, according to the latest edition of the South Georgia Newsletter

  • Friday, November 6th 2015 - 14:23 UTC

    Cruise line adds kayak excursions in Antarctica, Falklands and South Georgia

    Ventures by Seabourn optional kayak excursions will also be offered at South Georgia Island and Port Stanley, Falkland Islands.

    Luxury cruise line Seaborn is adding a new adventure to its Antarctica voyages aboard 'Seabourn Quest' this season: Kayaking. Ventures by Seabourn optional kayak excursions will also be offered at South Georgia Island and Port Stanley, Falkland Islands. It's an expansion of the line's new “Ventures by Seabourn” excursions that launched last summer in other destinations.

  • Wednesday, November 4th 2015 - 07:18 UTC

    Australia announces construction of new icebreaker and more funds for Antarctic research

    The new icebreaker will be faster (max speed of 16 knots), larger (156 meters long), and stronger with a 1.65-meter icebreaking capacity

    The Australian government has provided the first look at Australia's new icebreaker, a ship it says will offer scientists unprecedented and extended access to the Southern Ocean and Antarctica.

  • Saturday, October 31st 2015 - 06:08 UTC

    Frustration with CCAMLR meeting: no advance on conservation proposals

    ”CCAMLR failed to pass a single important measure to enhance conservation – its primary responsibility,” said Mark Epstein from ASOC

    The 34th meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Marine Living Resources closed Friday in Hobart, Tasmania with the unexpected emergence of China as a supporter for a revised Ross Sea MPA. The Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC) described the Commission’s slow progress to live up to its conservation responsibilities as “challenging”.

  • Thursday, October 22nd 2015 - 19:05 UTC

    Ushuaia cruise season takes off: 331 calls estimated in 2015/16

    Antarctic cruises sail across the Drake Passage to Antarctica peninsula, a full two days trip, which can later include south seas islands such as South Georgia

    The 2015/16 cruise season has taken off in Argentine Tierra del Fuego with the arrival on Monday, of 'Ushuaia' and 90 passengers, one of the 331 calls which are estimated according to Ushuaia authorities. Gianfranco Guardamagna head of the Tierra del Fuego Tourism Institute recalled the significance of the cruise industry for Ushuaia, since the austral city “commands 95% of all international Antarctic tourism”.

  • Monday, October 19th 2015 - 21:46 UTC

    Polar operators keen on conducting citizen science projects

    Kim Crosbie, Executive Director, IAATO, highlighted that after a period of downturn, tourism to Antarctica is recovering and diversifying

    Field staff from the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operations (IAATO) and the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators (AECO) got together in Toronto last month in the first Polar field staff conference ever held. Seventy-five people attended over the three days representing 24 IAATO/AECO members, three governments, three universities and the World Wildlife Fund.

  • Thursday, October 15th 2015 - 06:52 UTC

    HMS Protector to assess fish stocks and update Ross Sea charts

    Ross Sea contains valuable fish stocks and Protector will help to ensure fishing vessels comply with the strict environmental rules for a sustainable resource.

    Ice ship HMS Protector is heading for waters no Royal Navy vessel has visited in 80 years as she begins a marathon deployment to Antarctica. The Plymouth-based icebreaker and survey vessel will ensure the world’s fishermen are not stripping the largely-unspoiled waters of the Ross Sea of marine life.