Argentina's 2020/2021 Antarctic campaign successfully finished last week after the arrival of the Argentine Navy icebreaker “Almirante Irízar” at the port of Buenos Aires without registering any positive case of Covid-19 among its 392 crew members, military and scientists.
The official Argentine 2020/21 Antarctic season was launched last Friday with a ceremony at the Buenos Aires Navy pier where the icebreaker “ARA Almirante Irizar” was docked, but with no authorities boarding the vessel to avoid any possible coronavirus contagion.
According to reports in the Argentine media next November the Australian flagged icebreaker Aurora Australis will be docking in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, and then head for Buenos Aires where, allegedly, she will be incorporated to the Argentine navy fleet and will be participating next to ARA Almirante Irizar in the 2020/21 Antarctica campaign.
President Alberto Fernandez on Friday underlined the significance of Argentina's standing presence in Antarctica, --to defend its sovereignty claims--, and also recalled that 187 years ago the British invaded and usurped the Malvinas Islands, a land which “we will never renounce to, and we will always claim”.
Argentina's icebreaker ARA Almirante Irizar has completed its round of supplying Antarctic bases, on time and according to planning, reports the Antarctic Joint Command. The bases involved are Esperanza, Marambio and Carlini.
With the departure of icebreaker ARA Almirante Irizar, Argentina launched this week its Antarctica Summer Campaign 2018/19. The re furbished icebreaker is scheduled to develop an intense scientific activity, supply Argentina's bases and stations and replace the teams that will be spending a whole season in Antarctica.
Argentina's icebreaker Almirante Irizar is back in Buenos Aires at the end of its first Antarctic campaign in ten years, following the fire that almost knocked the Finnish built vessel out of action. She left on 26 December and completed 107 days in the high seas and Antarctica's ice.
A group of US scientists who were stranded in an ice-bound island off the northeastern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula were rescued on Sunday by an Argentine icebreaker, US and Argentine authorities announced Monday.
Argentina's flagship of Antarctica operations is back after ten long years. The refurbished icebreaker ARA Almirante Irizar, called at Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, on New Year before leaving for the 2017/18 summer campaign.
Argentina's Navy icebreaker ARA Almirante Irizar is back on sea trials following almost ten years of recovery and refurbishing after she caught fire in 2007 when returning from Antarctica and was considered almost a wreck given the magnitude of the damages experienced.