The Polar Retrospective – A free Watson, birds perishing, a giant iceberg moving and the successor of Polarstern
The Polar Retrospective looks at recent stories from around the world’s polar regions. This week, we tell you about the release of activist Paul Watson, a heatwave that killed million of common murres, the drift of giant iceberg A23a and the upcoming arrival of Polarstern II.
The Polar Retrospective is a collaborative effort by the Polar Journal team. Each writer chooses a topic they found interesting and important in the past week. The intitials at the end of each section indicate the author. We hope you enjoy it.
Whale activist Paul Watson released from jail in Greenland
In July, the internationally famous anti-whaling activist Paul Watson was arrested in Nuuk, Greenland. The local police, which reports directly to Denmark, were acting because of an arrest warrant from Japan. In Japan, Watson is accused of causing damage to a Japanese whaling wessel back in 2010.
For five months, as summer turned to winter, he was held in Greenlandic prison, while the Danish government decided if he should be extradited. This caused criticism from various Hollywood celebrities, including Pierce Brosnan, James Cameron, and Martin Sheen. Even French president Emmanuel Macron showed support.
In the end, Denmark decided against extradition, the Danish Minister of Justice citing that the crime was committed 14 years ago, and that Watson had now already been imprisoned for five months.
In an interview after his release, Watson said he was happy to be able to be with his family during Christmas. He also thought his imprisonment and the attention it garnered had helped his cause.
“It has actually served better than I thought it would because my being in prison has given international attention to Japan’s ongoing activities,” Paul Watson told DR – Denmark’s public broadcaster.
Eight Million Common Murres Perish During a Heatwave
A black suit jacket, a white shirt, and a finely trimmed moustache… are Common Murres dressing for dinner? In 2016, their attire fell short of matching the events. In Alaska, an unprecedented heatwave deprived these seabirds of food. A study published in the journal Science in mid-December reveals that eight million birds died in just one year. The population in this region was halved as a result. This is thought to be the largest mass mortality event recorded among vertebrates to date.
The heatwave in question has a nickname in the United States: the Blob. The temperature of the Pacific Ocean rose by 2°C above historical averages. This anomaly persisted for two years (2014–2016) between the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Strait. By 2015, scientists had already begun counting dead birds. But in 2016, they recorded 62,000 carcasses. While the total estimate was not yet known, they already suspected an extreme, large-scale phenomenon.
Underwater kelp forests and coral reefs suffered from the elevated temperatures. Cod, capelin, and salmon populations also declined suddenly, even as commercial fishing continued to operate. Colonies of Common Murres, some thousands of kilometres apart, faced this grim fate, with losses reaching up to 70% in the northernmost colonies. Humpback whales also disappeared from the region, with 7,000 individuals unaccounted for.
Alaska, home to half of the world’s population of this elegant bird, has yet to recover. “We may now be at a tipping point of ecosystem rearrangement where recovery back to pre-die-off abundance is not possible,” said Julia Parrish, a marine biologist at the University of Washington, in a statement. C.L
A23a hits the road
The iceberg had been stranded on the bottom of the Weddell Sea for 30 years. In 2020, it had begun to move out to sea, but was caught in a gyre that sent it spinning near the South Orkney Islands. Since 13 December, however, it has been moving again, drifting northwards.
This is iceberg A23a. A huge mass of ice calved from the Filchner Ice Shelf in 1986. At 3,800 km2 and 400 metres thick, this large ice cube will follow the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, which is likely to carry it towards South Georgia. Scientists will monitor this drift closely: “It’s exciting to see A23a on the move again after periods of being stuck.”, mentions Dr Andrew Meijers, oceanographer at the British Antarctic Survey in a press release published on 13 December. “We are interested to see if it will take the same route the other large icebergs that have calved off Antarctica have taken. And more importantly what impact this will have on the local ecosystem.”
Despite its impressive size, the iceberg should break up and melt when it comes into contact with warmer waters. However, as it drifts, it should provide nutrients to the waters through which it passes, providing valuable information to scientists who will continue to monitor it. M.B.
“Polarstern II” – The successor to “Polarstern I” will arrive in 2030
The green light has been given for the new Polarstern II to replace the “old lady” Polarstern I: After the German Bundestag cleared the way, the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) contracted the thyssenkrupp Marine Systems shipyard in Wismar in northern Germany with the new construction on December 19, 2024. The high-tech research icebreaker is to be handed over to the AWI in 2030 after a five-year construction period.
The new flagship of German polar research will replace the famous Polarstern I and, with state-of-the-art technology and a range of different laboratories, will enable the continuation of interdisciplinary Earth system research and thus continue to make a significant contribution to gaining knowledge about natural processes in the polar regions. Polarstern II will also be equipped with high-tech in terms of sustainability and will be one of the most environmentally friendly icebreakers in the world.
“We’re delighted that the construction phase finally begins,” says Prof. Dr. Antje Boetius, Director of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research. “We had to wait a very long time for this moment. As much as we love our old Polarstern, the scientific community urgently needs a new research vessel capable of employing current technologies. Thanks to the planned onboard assets, such as underwater robots, unmanned drones and new drilling technologies, we will be better equipped to tackle new and pressing research questions. I’m also very pleased that in this way Germany will be able to provide outstanding support for the new UN Decade of Action for Cryospheric Sciences and the International Polar Year.”
Polarstern I has been sailing in the Arctic and Antarctic for more than 40 years — she was commissioned on December 9, 1982 and today has around 1.9 million nautical miles under her keel, which is equivalent to around 88 circumnavigations of the Earth along the equator. She is still an indispensable tool for German and international polar research and a reliable temporary home for scientists.
With each expedition, the research teams collect invaluable data and generate essential knowledge that, among other things, contributes to a better understanding of the complex processes in the polar regions and their impact on the global climate system. J.H.
Brief profile of Polarstern II (link to full data sheet):
- Owner Alfred Wegener Institute
- Length 160 m, width 27 m, draught 11 m
- Ice class Polar Class 2
- Diesel-electric propulsion, state-of-the-art filter systems, battery system for emission-free measurements
- Crew of 50, capacity for 60 – 90 scientists
- 13 laboratories for different purposes
- Equipment: ROV (remotely operated underwater vehicle), AUVs (autonomous underwater robots), LARS (Launch and Recovery System for the various water vehicles), drilling device for 60 m long sediment cores, etc.
- Autonomous voyage duration 90 days
Link to more infos, images and animations about the new Polarstern: https://polarstern.awi.de/en/
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