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The m/v Arctic Sunrise is the latest addition to Greenpeace's fleet. The ship has spent most of its life in icy polar seas. It started its Greenpeace life campaigning against oil pollution in the North Sea, and then doing education and action work in the Mediterranean. At the end of 1996, however, the ship was prepared for its first visit to the Antarctic, and its first ice work for Greenpeace. Documenting Climate Change in Antarctica In January of 1997 the m/v Arctic Sunrise departed southern Argentina, bound for the frozen continent of Antarctica to begin a month long expedition. The focus of this month long expedition was to document emerging evidence of human-induced climate change, including the apparently increasing instability of the Antarctic ice shelves. Over the last 50 years, temperatures in the vicinity of the Antarctic Peninsula have warmed by 2.5 degrees C - much faster than the global average. Simultaneously, vast areas of the large ice masses surrounding the coastlines of the Antarctic Peninsula have begun to disintegrate. The m/v Arctic Sunrise, an ice-breaking vessel, and her crew of 32, set off from a tiny town on the tip of Argentina called Ushuaia, known as 'al fin del mundo' - at the end of the earth - to investigate the extent of the ice collapse. The ship sailed through waters that only recently were impenetrable ice. The 4,200 square kilometer, 300 meter thick Larsen-A ice shelf collapsed in January 1995. Martina Krueger, a campaigner aboard the ship, wrote in her diary: " Ice shelves are made up of continental ice and glaciers which are slowly floating into the sea. This is where icebergs come from - they break off in big chunks at the front as ice is pushed down from the land. But because of the warmer temperatures this balance has been disrupted. Deep rifts appeared in the ice and in January 1995 what was left of the ice sheet collapsed over a period of just fifty days...It was an eerie feeling to think that just over two years ago, people were walking 30 meters above us on what then seemed impermeable ice." The Arctic Sunrise went on to circumnavigate James Ross Island, a passage which would have been impossible up until two years ago, due to a 200 meter thick ice shelf which connected the island to the Antarctic continent. The ice shelf collapsed around the same time as the Larsen A. The ship was the first ever to circumnavigate the island. Captain Arne Sørensen said: "For sailors, steaming in uncharted waters is an exciting challenge. However, my excitement is tainted with the belief that it is human interference with the climate that has allowed us to make this passage." Glaciologists at the British Antarctic Survey confirm this belief, noting that, "ice shelves appear to be sensitive indicators of climate change." Traveling south to the Larsen-B ice shelf, Greenpeace found huge cracks in the ice which suggest that this shelf, built up over thousands of years, may also soon collapse. A report from the first flyover of the area indicated: "One big rift [we] followed begins right at the ice front and continues to the horizon. Its width is about 6-8 meters, widening to 20-30 meters. The crack is about 30 meters deep (to sea level) and at the bottom of the crack it is possible to see big rocks of ice along its valley." According to Dr. Rodolfo Del Valle, Head of Geology at the Argentinean Antarctic Institute, this crack is but one example of the many cracks that are appearing on the shelf. He and his colleagues believe that Larsen-B may collapse within the next couple of years. Greenpeace campaigners also witnessed deserted and near-extinct colonies of Adelie penguins around the US Antarctic Station, Palmer. Large declines in Adelie penguin populations have been observed in this area. US researcher Professor Fraser of Montana State University, blames the change in climate for these declines: "Over the past 40 years, a decrease in the number of cold years with extensive winter sea ice has probably been an important factor in the observed declines in Adelie penguin populations." The sea ice retreats with warmer temperatures, reducing habitat and food for the penguins (algae which grows on the underside of the ice is eaten by krill, the stable food of the penguins). On to the Arctic After doing fisheries work off New Zealand, and a brief stint with the Forest campaign in Canada, the ship is now being prepared for her next polar journey - across the Gulf of Alaska and into the Bering Sea and through the Bering Strait into the Beaufort Sea - that part of the Arctic Ocean north of Alaska and western Canada. During the northern summer of 1997 the campaigners and crew aboard the Arctic Sunrise will continue the investigative and documentation work begun in the Antarctic in another region of the world that is an especially sensitive early harbinger of the threat of climate change: the Western Arctic. This region also happens to be one of the most active areas for oil development in the world. M/V Arctic Sunrise Technical Specifications
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