Antarctic studies on wave patterns are key to safe passage

DECLARING the Ross Sea a marine reserve is a welcomed move towards conserving Antarctica and its waters.

Hopefully, the whole area south of latitude 60º south will become a conservation area.

In former years, November saw the arrival in Cape Town of Norwegian, British, Dutch, German and Russian whaling fleets to bunker and victual before heading south for the annual slaughter of the whales.

From that dreadful industry, huge revenue was earned locally in port charges, agents fees, bunkers and chandling services.

The marine engineering sector also benefited from the whaling fleets.

Those whalers that had wintered in Cape Town needed to be readied for the rigours of the Southern Ocean, and many of those arriving from Europe needed repairs.

The large Norwegian factory ship, Sir James Clark Ross, sprung serious leaks when in the notorious Southern Ocean one year and had to be drydocked to allow repair teams to replace rivets in her side plating.

Earning good wages for a threemonth spell, many young South Africans worked aboard the factory ships, helping carve up the whales whose numbers declined radically during those years of wanton killing.

Fortunately, the ships heading south now are on benign and beneficial missions. Most are involved directly in Antarctic research and in moving supplies to the scientific bases in that inhospitable part of the world.

SA Agulhas 2 made a whistle-stop voyage into the depths of the Antarctic night a month ago for scientists to collect ice samples for analysis, an expensive yet important operation, one of many involving South African experts.

Passing through Cape Town last week was the German-flagged research ship Maria S Merion en route to the Indian Ocean and to the islands.

A large group of scientists are aboard to undertake research in their respective marine fields.

An ambitious project of the Swiss Polar Institute involves complex research work during the circumnavigation of Antarctica aboard the Russian polar vessel Akademik Tryoshnikov.

Fifty-five researchers will work on 22 different projects during the voyage.

She will leave Cape Town on December 20 and head for Hobart, Tasmania, via several sub-Antarctic islands.

With a number of calls en route, she will spend a few days in Punta Arenas, Chile, before visits to South Georgia, South Sandwich Island and Bouvet. She returns to Cape Town in mid-March.

Among the South Africans involved in this voyage are UCT oceanographers, as well as researchers assisting the Cape Town-based Coastal Marine Technology, who were also aboard SA Agulhas 2 during her winter trip to the ice.

Throughout the forthcoming expedition, they will work with the University of Melbourne and the German Aerospace Centre to collect an uninterrupted set of data relating to wind, waves and surface currents.

This research will help folks to understand the complex wave physics in the Southern Ocean and to formulate wave forecasting models for the region where waves are the biggest on the planet. They exert extreme erosional force on the coastline of Antarctic islands and affect the formation of sea ice.

And why is this necessary? These days, increasing numbers of cruise ships venture into these extreme latitudes – unwisely in my view.

Well-documented studies of waves and ice in that remote region are essential to minimising the risk of accidents.

The great circle route between Brazil and the Lombok Straits borders on the Southern Ocean.

Expanded knowledge about wave patterns in the area will assist the safe passage of some of the world’s largest ore carriers steaming from Brazil to the east with full ore cargoes.

Even polar research vessels will benefit.