Our Man in Antarctica

ASOC is pleased to have been contacted by Cody Meyer, aka Antarctic Cowboy, who works as a chef at McMurdo and is very interested in Antarctic conservation and off-grid living when he's not busy feeding hungry scientists. He's even started an Antarctic Conservation League for his fellow McMurdo-ites.

From Cody's updates, it appears that a welcome effort to keep research stations sustainable is underway. Whether briefing staffers on ways to conserve resources or installing wind farms, it appears that the old days of assuming that there were so few people in Antarctica that they didn't have to worry about pollution are thankfully over. The Ross Island Wind Farm that went online this year, for example, will eventually supply 100% of Ross Station's energy needs, and 50% of McMurdo's according to Cody.

It's fantastic that there are people like Cody around to spread the word about greener ways of living, especially in fragile environments. He recently gave a presentation in Antarctica explaining his background in sustainable, off-grid living. Some slides from his presentation below:





Check out Cody's blog post on his adventures in living sustainably. And if you're working in Antarctica, join the Antarctic Conservation League! We at ASOC look forward to hearing more from Cody and the ACL.


One of the wind turbines for the new Ross Island wind turbine, courtesy of Mr. Meyer. In case you were wondering, Antarctica is the windiest place on the planet so it's a no-brainer to use wind power down there, although transporting the equipment does present something of a problem.

Polar Obsession

A while back, NPR reported on the very cool new book by a photographer who has focused his work on the poles. It sounds as if he's endured some hardships over the course of his career - bear aggression, frostbite, the usual - but the result are stunning photos that Paul Nicklen hopes will motivate people to preserve these remote wildernesses.

The best reason to read the story or buy the book, though, may be the encounter Nicklen had with a female leopard seal who tried to befriend him by bringing him a series of penguins in various stages of, well, being alive in hopes that she could feed him. I think it was a little rude of him not to eat one, no? It's difficult to catch penguins underwater - they move pretty fast.

Congratulations to Dr. Steven Chown...

We would like to congratulate Prof Steven Chown from Stellenbosch University in South Africa, the recipient of the Martha T. Muse Prize for Science and Policy in Antarctica, for his outstanding work on the study of invasive alien species and the effects of climate change and human interactions in the region.

Prof. Chown has been studying Antarctica and sub-Antarctic ecology for the better part of twenty years. He and his team have not only demonstrated that substantial numbers of seeds actually enter the region, but also that many of them are from species typically known to be invasive elsewhere on the planet. They have also been able to demonstrate how simple interventions concerning proper warehousing, cleaning of clothing and different shipping routes can greatly reduce the risks and problems associated with the transfer of invasive species to the region.

The Martha T. Muse prize brings him well-earned recognition and an award of $100,000. We wish him the best in continuing his research on this most important issue so we may keep Antarctica unspoiled.

Antarctic Treaty Summit - 2009!

I would be remiss not to discuss this year's annual Antarctic Treaty Summit in Washington DC. This is an especially important year for the treaty as it is its 50th anniversary. To mark the occasion, the twelve original signatories will convene at the Smithsonian Institute from 30 November through 3 December to discuss lessons learned about international governance under an Antarctic backdrop. I should also mention that ASOC's executive director, James Barnes will be speaking in the wrap-up panel on 2 December.

One of the goals of the treaty is to establish broad public awareness around the world about the visionary goals, strategies and achievements that have emerged from the Antarctic Treaty in the interest of all mankind. It will be interesting to see exactly what has resulted from fifty years of research and campaigning. What has evolved? What has stayed the same? What does the future hold for the 'last great wilderness'?

South Orkneys Become the Newest Marine Protected Area

News broke yesterday that the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) declared its first Marine Protected Area below the Southe Orkney Islands in the Southern Ocean. With the CCAMLR meeting still fresh on the minds of ASOC campaigners this is an encouraging victory for them and the Antarctic community. It is also a huge step forward in working to conserve the delicate marine ecosystems around Antarctica. This and (hopefully) future MPAs will encourage further scientific investigation of differences between fished and protected areas of the Southern Ocean.

What makes this area especially important is that its unique natural features make it a key habitat for krill, which are both one of the main draws for fishing vessels to the Antarctic and an essential food source for so many of the Antarctic's marine species.

Save the Krill, Save the Penguins

For the past two weeks, ASOC campaigners have been working hard at the annual meeting of the Commission on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living resources (CCAMLR). CCAMLR is the body that manages fisheries in the Southern Ocean, and its management of the krill populations is particularly critical. Krill stocks are declining just as improved technology and a growing market for nutritional supplements are making the species more interesting to fishers. This year, ASOC delegates were urging that the krill catch be divided geographically even though it has not reached the size that CCAMLR previously decided would warrant such a division. The reason the catch needs to be divided further is that local depletions of krill can directly impact krill predators that forage nearby. Making sure that fishing vessels don't all target the same area makes it less likely that penguins, whales and seals will be affected by the catch.

A lot of companies that produce krill oil often note that the size of the krill catch is small compared to the estimated krill population. However, as mentioned local depletions can have a big impact, and as krill populations continue to decline hard choices may have to be made. As in, do penguins deserve life even if it means someone can't purchase a cheap nutritional supplement of dubious effectiveness (the American Heart Association doesn't recommend fish oil supplements for people without heart disease)? I know which one I'd rather have.

NASA tracks polar ice by plane

Sometimes it seems that most people only care about the melting ice at the North Pole because, of course, there's the prospect of oil. But NASA hasn't forgotten about the South Pole, and despite losing a critical satellite, has started the Ice Bridge mission to make sure it keeps abreast of how Antarctic ice changes. Interestingly, the article mentions that Antarctic ice is less studied than Greenland's ice - even though Antarctica is much bigger. Its bigger size and miles-deep land ice sheets could result in rising sea levels as global temperature heats up.

Mission Ice Bridge will use a DC-8 plane that is perhaps less fancy than the ICESat satellite it will replace, but some scientists argue it has just as much ability to take useful measurements. The DC-8 missions have already helped scientists get information on Pine Island, an Antarctic island whose glacier is melting into the ocean.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the article was a scientist's description of the differences between land and sea ice:

"Sea ice is like the ice cube that's already floating in a glass of water, he says. As it melts, it doesn't raise the water level.

But land ice is like the ice in your freezer Martin says. When you add a new cube to your glass, the water level rises.

And the glaciers of Antarctica represent a very large ice cube."