Ice voyage yields chilling evidence

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

Sir Peter Blake has sailed into icy Antarctic waters where no man has gone before.

Yesterday, the New Zealand sailing legend phoned to tell the United Nations how the global ice cap is melting away - fresh evidence of global warming.

Sir Peter called into the conference of the UN Environment Programme in Nairobi from his aluminium yacht Seamaster, anchored amongst icebergs at 69 degrees south.

"We are sitting here in a piece of water that has never been chartered - no boat has ever been through these waters," he said yesterday.

"We have sailed through narrow passages between mountains and islands that are usually frozen solid.

"I'm no scientist, and you can only surmise about the reason why. But we are sitting here and we can see it."

Sir Peter's dive south is the first voyage in his new project, blakexpeditions, to help protect the world's waters.

His 36m icebreaker has sailed along the Antarctic Peninsula over the last month, making new discoveries as it went.

The boat sat in King George VI Sound yesterday, with the temperature a pleasant 5 degrees, minus the freezing wind chill that often whips about the boat.

Sir Peter has seen signs of global warming above and below the ice.

Yesterday, blakexpedition divers plunged under the ice shelf, where the sub-zero waters resembled thick pea soup.

"The visibility was very poor - it was thick with algae," Sir Peter said.

"The phytoplankton under the ice that feeds the krill is just floating everywhere because the ice has gone.

"Phytoplankton is so critical - it produces more than 50 per cent of the oxygen that we breathe. It's mind-boggling."

Sir Peter's crew spotted a herd of elephant seals breeding at 69 degrees south.

"They have never been seen here before - they are usually much further north," he said.

"The main ice shelf used to be here 25 years ago, but it is moving back at around a mile a year.

"Scientists have told us that it's normally hard ice here. No one can ever remember it being like this before.

"We've talked to scientists and sea captains who have been coming here since the 1970s, and they say it is markedly different now.

"The average temperature has increased about 1.4 degrees Celsius."

Sir Peter was invited to report to the Environment Programme's governing council conference in Kenya yesterday, where New Zealand's Minister for the Environment, Marian Hobbs, was among the delegates.

The programme's executive director, Klaus Toepfer, told Sir Peter that reports showed global warming over the next century could raise the temperature as much as 5.8 degrees.

Ice shelves were collapsing at a spectacular rate and the ice was retreating as the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rose from industrial emissions.

"Climate change in polar regions is expected to be among the greatest of any region on Earth and will cause major physical, ecological, sociological and economic impacts," said Mr Toepfer.

Sir Peter is revelling in his new ice escapades.

After his conference call yesterday, he went cycling on the ice.

"We had to scrub the bike down with disinfectant first and then I went for a blast in my survival suit," he said.

"It was fantastic - it's such a solid surface.

"A couple of leopard seals then waddled over to the boat and sniffed the bike lying on the ice. They've never seen anything like us before."

Although Sir Peter is overawed by the beauty of the Antarctic, he is still wary of the hidden dangers in the ice.

"Moving through the ice can be a problem - we've had the odd crunch. But fortunately we are in a bit of a battleship.

"We have to try and find our way out of here now," he said.

"Huge icebergs are breaking off a glacier 20 miles east of here. They are about 1km long and 1km wide - each one of them 100 million tonnes of ice. And they are blocking our way."

Auckland photojournalist Ivor Wilkins spent three weeks on board Seamaster exploring the Antarctic Peninsula.