sign in sign up
<<
Home , Fram, Fridtjof Nansen

www.taraexpeditions.org A century ago : the Nansen drift wanted to reach the pole by having his boat caught in the ice and letting her drift. He will miss his objective by some 800 km but will bring back all his crew despite three very harsh wintering.

In 1895, a Norwegian succeeded in com- pleting the fi rst drift on the , the boat that is Tara’s ancestor. Prolonged for three long polar winters, the mission, however, was not able to reach the pole.

Fridtjof Nansen was 32 years old when he Her rounded shapes should prevent the ice from March 1895, Nansen decides to leave the boat had begun on the journey. During the summer, started on his Arctic drift. His aim was to get crushing her, but it is especially her sturdiness and go with a companion to the the pack ice becomes more and more impracti- as close to the North pole as possible. It is after that enables her to resist to the pack ice grip : the by sledge. Th e two men are equipped with cable but at the end of August, they accost on having discovered in the south west of Green- hull is more than 80 centimetres thick. light and take 630 kg of equipment with land on the Franz-Joseph archipelago. Th ey re- land the remains of a vessel crushed by the ice, With a crew of 13 men, Nansen leaves them. After 23 days on the go, they give up on solve to spend their third Arctic winter. All the that had disappeared three years earlier off the on the 28th of June 1893. Th e boat is caught in the 8th of April. Th ey have reached 86°14’, the dogs are dead. In a sort of shelter, made of bear’s New coast, that Fridtjof Nansen concei- the ice more or less when planned, on the 20th highest latitude ever to be set foot on, but the skins, the two men brave the extreme winter ved the hypothesis of a major transpolar drift, of September, by 78°20’ Northern latitude. Th e pack ice is drifting in the opposite direction… temperatures. Th ey survive by hunting liable to carry him there. drift begins but at a much slower pace than was barely advanced northward. Th ey turn round and polar bears. In the springtime, they leave Glorifi ed by his recent successful crossing anticipated by the explorer. At the end of the and go back beatin an extraordinarily trying their shelter and are picked up by chance by the of – a fi rst- he manages to raise fi rst polar winter, the Fram is located at only retreat. At the end of May, the two men have Jackson expedition in July. At about the same the funds to put up his costly expedition. He 80°north and on the 6th January of the fol- gone down to 82° North but their supplies are time, the Fram is freed from the ice. Th e entire builds the Fram (“Forwards!” in Norwegian), a lowing year (1895) at 83°40’ north! starting to run out and no land is on sight. Th ey crew triumphantly disembarks in Oslo on the three mast schooner, 39 m long and 11 m wide. At the end of the second winter, on the 14th have 16 dogs remaining out of the 28 dogs that 9th September 1895

Committing for the environment is a must ! Th e graphics studio be_pôles helps and advises its clients to elaborate a responsible communications policy that fi ts into a sustainable growth approach. Th is is why be_pôles has created ECOGRAPHIKTM ECOGRAPHIKTM is an ecological commitment charter for “sustainable communication”. It guarantees the use of ecological or recycled papers. It has signed partnerships with printers labelled IMPRIM’VERT. It anticipates on the visual pollution problems linked for instance to urban billposting. By integrating the ECOGRAPHIKTM charter to its work, the studio be_pôles commits itself in a long standing approach that is respectful of the environment. Be_pôles has been supporting Tara Expeditions for the past three years and the Ecological Pacte for the 2007 presidential elections in France “of the Nicolas Hulot Foundation”. Th e company off ers all its commu- nications skills : website, publishing tools. Be_pôles has produced the magazine Tara Expeditions.

12

Le Journal Tara Expeditions - Damocles N° 1 - dec. 2006 TARA EXPEDITIONS AND DAMOCLES

Magazine free of charge published by Tara and Damocles. Photos by Francis Latreille, François Bernard, Jean Collet, Grant Redvers, Sebastião Salgado and Tara Arctic. Graphics design and lay out www. be-poles.com TARAWAKALe SARL 52 chaussée de l’Etang 94160journal Saint Mandé France - 00 33 1 42 01 38 57. Legal representative and publication manager : Etienne Bourgois. Editor in chief : Eric Biegala. Translation from French into English : Caroline Emmet. Printing company : DDBZ, Bidart France. Date of publishing and legal deposit : 1st of December 2006 RUNNING Tara, the polar schooner AGROUND BEFORE has bet on its ability to drift NIGHTFALL Things could have run smoothly… After all, it on the pack ice during the next was just a matter of coming alongside an ice floe! In short, Tara was supposed to moor on the two years. On board, scientists edge of the ice , the crew sticking two stakes in the ice to compel the boat. Then, one just had to wait for the ocean to freeze entirely to have will take turns to study a polar base form around the boat, to contain its tents, oil stocks, tractor and scientific equipment. the climate warming impact A drifting base, supposed to cover 1 800 km in the next two years within the Program. It was in any case the theoretical plan. on the Arctic pack ice. The first “We first had to head as much north as possible” explains Etienne Bourgois, the expedition chief. challenge : to have the boat’s The aim was to have the moor the ice by 81° of northern latitude. Tara was not able to go beyond 80°. Then, one had to find the right ice 160 tons rise up on the ice! floe. “We had to make fast the boat on a large and solid piece of pack ice made of pluriannual ice so as to disembark the material” adds Bernard Buigues, the other Tara Arctic expedition initiator. The mooring ofTara in the ice would not have been possible without the help of the Russian Kapitan Dranitsyn that opened the way to the schooner and enabled to spot from the bridge the proper ice floe : an ice plate of a sizeable span measuring 5 x 3,5 km. Having departed from Lorient on the 11th of July 2006, Tara was thus moored on Septem- ber 3rd after a few administrative complications in Russia that delayed her meeting with the Kapitan Dranitsyn. A final thrust allowed her to rise on the ice, lying down on half of her length. On port side : the compact pack ice, on starboard side : sparse drifting ice pieces. Four additional days to disembark the equipment, establish a base on the floe and the two heli- copters flew off. The eight men of the crew who were going to hibernate together found them- selves on their own. A short time after, the wind rose… In a couple of hours, the wind strengthened. On September 12th it reached 40 knots (75 km/h). The ocean had had the time to freeze around the boat… but barely. In open water, a heavy swell appeared with the storm. On September 13th mid-day, was the first surge of adrenalin. The swell had caught up with the ice floe : the floe dislocated itself “like a mirror being shatte- red” recounts Grant Redvers, the chief of the base. “Imagine hundreds of ice pieces scattered on a 10 km2 area with some carrying a tent others a tractor or an oil reserve. It was impossible to go af- ter them on foot, Tara could not be manoeuvred as she no longer had her rudder blades and the size of the ice pieces prevented us from using the annexe… One had to wait for the sea to refreeze” Bernard Buigues further explains. Ten days were neces- sary to gather up every thing without any losses. There must have been a god for Arctic bases. Mid-October night fell, the polar night that will last until March. And the pack ice remai- ned alive. On the 27th, a lead opened ten meters away from Tara. At three in the morning on the 31st, the ice creaks changed into “atrocious ripping sounds as if something was reducing a thick pages 2-3 page 4 page 10 page 12 metal shield into shreds… In my cabin it felt like being in hell” Matthieu Weber, the boat’s engi- The great The sailboat Eight men A century neer wrote in his diary. An enormous piece of pack ice had risen to overlap another piece a planetary from the far in the ago : the few meters away from the boat and at the speed collapse end of the earth winter Nansen drift of 10 cm/second! The toilets laid out on the ice two days before were swept away by the assault. Climate warming is taking The schooner was designed Alone in the polar night, The Norwegian had The scientific equipment also installed nearby place three times faster for extreme conditions like in a space capsule his boat caught in the ice was rescued in extremis. The main essentials in the North Pole to reach the pole were saved. The Gods of the poles had undoub- tedly been on Tara’s side.

Le Journal Tara Expeditions - Damocles N° 1 - dec. 2006 www.taraexpeditions.org

TheUp north, the pack ice is great melting. Polar planetary collapseIn the North Pole, the pack ice’s surface has bears are threatened and the disappea- diminished by 10% but its thickness has rance of the ice in summer could modify diminished by 45% in the past thirty years. climates and life styles in considerable proportion.

Global warming ? “The American submarines were those who revealed to us the scope of the problem”. For Christian de Marliave, who has twenty years of experience in the poles and who is the scientific coordinator of the Tara Arctic project, as for the entire scientific community, it was a great surprise. Indeed, partially demobilized at the end of the cold war, the American Navy lent its nuclear submarines to the scientists to visit the pack ice from below. Between 1995 and 1999, 100 000 nautical miles were thus covered and the sonar gave their verdict without appeal : the melt down is breath taking! “On satellite photos, we notice that the polar ice surface has diminished by an average of 8 to 10% in the past thirty years. But the pack ice has reduced by 40% in thickness during the same period which is considerable” adds Christian de Marliave. Mathematical models produce converging evaluations. “The five extrapolations that were calculated all show about the same thing : there will be no more summer pack ice within the next twenty to fifty years” asserts Jean-Claude Gascard, research director at the oceanographic and climatology laboratory of the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris and coordinator of the Damocles programme which is leading heart of a 1 000 km diameter circle. Each one melting of this freshwater ice risks modifying scientific studies from the Tara schooner. will be equipped with an inversed sonar and the thermohaline (movement of the expanses The first species to suffer from this will measure the thickness of the pack ice for of water according to temperature and salinity) disappearance will undoubtedly be the polar the next two years. and thus the “north Atlantic drift”. bear. “The bear hibernates in the winter and However, the pack ice melt down will have This ocean current, stemming from the TARA stores fat in the summer” continues Jean-Claude nearly no effect on ocean levels. Greenland, , heats up Western Europe and and the Gascard. “If there is no more summer pack ice he on the other hand, is a fantastic fresh water Scandinavia. It allows for human life with is sentenced to disappear”. Christian de Marliave reservoir. The ice that covers it is the outcome appreciable comfort conditions. But the UNITED adds “The bear feeds on seals that he catches when of thousands of years of precipitations. It is a rerouting of the drift, its’ slowing down, or they emerge from the ice. Without the pack ice, he is thick mass of maybe more than 3 km that is perhaps even its full stop would entail a drastic NATIONS finished. He is a good swimmer but has no chance to loosing more than a hundred billion tons of ice cooling off of the Scandinavian coasts and even environment program catch up with a seal in open water”. Three cases of per year according to the satellite observations a possible glaciation. cannibalism have been witnessed among polar of the Grace2 programme. Not only because A glaciation caused by global warming ? As The Environment Program bears this year : a possible prelude of what is to of the melt down but also because of the paradoxical as it may appear, the scenario is (UNEP) was created in 1972 to encourage come with the increased scarcity of their food.1 accelerating ice slide of glaciers in the sea, a not new. It already happened. Between 9 000 environmental protection actions whether kind of collateral damage due to the warming. and 8 500 BC, in full post-glacier debacle, the governmental or non governmental. It publishes To improve The Kangerdlugssuaq glacier hurtles down the melting of the North American glaciers had and publicises information reports on the Greenland coast at the mind boggling speed made the drifts’ regimen drop. It resulted in a planet’s environment in several languages. the mathematical models of 14 km per year. If all of Greenland began re-glaciation of the Scandinavian peninsulas It is also the initiator of world actions such to melt, the average ocean levels would rise during some 500 years. as the 2007 campaign to plant a billion trees. “Mathematical models are imperfect and the seven meters : London or New York would be Partner of Sir Peter Blake at the time when worse is not necessarily what is in store” moderates underwater not to mention Venice! Tara was still called Seamaster, the UNEP however Jean-Claude Gascard, “studies that we “It is a catastrophic scenario that is not going has continued its partnership with the Tara are carrying out on Tara’s board will enable us to to take place soon… However, even if Greenland Expeditions project. The schooner’s Arctic drift improve these models”. Instead of submarines, the reduced its ice by only 10%, the sea level would during the International Polar Year contributes Damocles researchers are going to install floats rise by 70 cm. Which is already quite something” 1 : Steven C. Amstrup et al, Polar Biology, Online first, 27 April 2006 to relay the “message that the changes taking under the ice, which will drift 50 m deep in the points out Jean-Claude Gascard. Moreover the 2 : Scott B. Luthcke et al, Science, 20 October 2006 place in the Polar Regions concern all of us” remarks Achim Steiner, deputy general secretary of the United Nations and Executive director of Global warming … the UNEP. INSIDE THE CLASSROOM Coordinated by the Paris Regional Pedagogi- cal Documentation Centre (CRDP), the educa- tion programme developed from Tara will enable school children to follow the expedition at close range and appreciate its scientific value. For this purpose, a dedicated website will be put on line in March 2007. This program has also received support from the Foundation for Environmen- tal Education in Europe, from the association “Planète Science” and the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris. The first organisation centralises the teacher’s requests whilst the se- cond prepares the class room presentations. The greenhouse effect phenomenon is on the course syllabus of French high schools. Beyond possible discoveries made by Tara on global warming, the pedagogical ambi- tion is also to show and explain the scientific approach in vivo : its hypothesis, deductions, course changes, and uncertainties. If need be, researchers from the Damocles program, enga- ged in the polar experiments can also speak in the classrooms. 2

Le Journal Tara Expeditions - Damocles N° 1 - dec. 2006 www.taraexpeditions.org

Damocles The labs are measu- ring the threat. Leading project for the wi- thin the International Polar Year, the Damocles programme (Developping Arctic Modelling and Observing Capabilities for Long-term Environ- mental Studies) aims to observe, understand, and quantify the Arctic climate changes in or- der to help decision making in light of the glo- bal warming. Damocles gathers 45 laboratories coming from ten European countries, the United States and Russia. For these scientists, Tara represents a remarkable advanced observation post “Usually, we lead campaigns from ” explains Jean-Claude Gascard who coordinates the Da- mocles programme, “the rental of an icebreaker is very expensive and it is thus not possible to mo- nopolise them during many months, be it years as with Tara.” Since 2004, the instrumentations, sounders and radiometers, that must draw the samples of data and elements have been tested in the on a hibernating polar ship, Vagabond. On Tara, the scientific measurements in the next two years will cover : - Lower atmosphere, studied thanks to a tethe- red balloon : recording of the air temperatures, speed and direction of the wind and atmospheric pressure on six levels between the surface and 2 000 m altitude. - Oceanographic data : temperature, salinity, water pressure down to 4 000 m deep. - Indispensable radiometers to account for the albedo modifications. The pack ice covered with snow reflects 80% of the solar radiation. This is what is called the albedo, the reflecting power. With the disappearance of the ice, this radiation will be absorbed by the ocean by 80%, reinfor- cing furthermore its warming. - The ice composition and the snow features which have an influence on air-sea exchanges - The ice thickness around Tara - The Arctic “surface ozone hole”. Indeed, during spring, the ozone concentrations drop sharply Mud on the surface of the . - The origin of the freshwater surface through the chemical analysis of the water WORLD - The nature of the aerosols, atmospheric parti- The warming could change Siberia and cles and pollutants in air suspension Alaska into a big slough - Biological analysis of specific ice bacteria - Wildlife : study of bear, seal, polar foxe, whale, At the end of 2004, the alert had been gi- or populations as well as the sound re- ven. During the international congress of the cording of sea mammals Sounder installation CDT Arctic Climate Impact Assessment programme - Study of human stress in a hostile environ- (Conductivity, Temperature, and Depth) in Reykjavik, the ACIA (Arctic Climate Impact to the boat’s stern. ment. Assessment) report, sponsored by the Arctic Council and validated by about 300 scientists had highlighted the most probable and severe consequences of the Arctic sea warming : ex- tinction of the , melt-down of Green- land, thermohaline circulation modification, ri- sing of the water level… The report also aimed at drawing attention on another short term warming consequence : the melting of the per- mafrost. Permafrost is permanent frozen earth that is used as a platform to the tundra, especially in Siberia and in a good part of North Ame- rica in the Northern Arctic polar circle. “Du- ring the 100 next years, according to a scenario of mild greenhouse effect gas emission, temperatures in Alaska should rise from 3° to 5°C”, notes for example the ACIA report. Already, the change of permafrost into mud destabilises forests at certain periods of the year. Roots can no lon- ger anchor themselves to a soil that has become to loose : the trees lean over and fall, giving a “drunken forests “impression. As for the Arctic shoreline, this ice thaw makes it more vulnerable to erosion now that sea storms attack it directly. The pack ice is no longer there to stop the waves. Several coastal Inuit villages are presently threatened of disap- pearing. Worn away by the storms, the ground The Ice Mass Balance beacons measure has literally given way, swept by the sea. the thickness of the pack ice around More seriously, the permafrost thaw would the boat. On the left background, the meteo release enormous quantities of captive carbon mast records the temperature, atmospheric monoxide and methane in the atmosphere. pressure and wind speed and direction These two gases are the main vectors of the greenhouse effect. Global warming would thus be accelerated. 3

Le Journal Tara Expeditions - Damocles N° 1 - dec. 2006 www.taraexpeditions.org The sail boat from theChristened far then Seamaster end and of the theEarth schooner’s design, it was chosen to ease its a good knowledge of the polar environment, finally Tara, the schooner is fit for extre- manoeuvring. “This is not a race boat : the idea is Etienne Bourgois also views environmental me geographic conditions. Designed and to have the least people on deck when the tempera- problems as a priority… The deal is clinched in steered by passionate people since the ture starts to drop”. a few months. beginning, this extraordinary ship is an Christmas 1987 : Doctor Jean-Louis Etienne The aim of Sir Peter Blake “was to make eve- exploration and adventure vessel that is thrusts himself into the project. He invests his rybody understand the issues linked to the environ- unique in the world. Nearly a myth war chest, savings left over from his previous ment : global warming, for example”, says Pippa, expeditions and receives funding from the In- the widow of the New-Zealand skipper- “he was When one faces the boat, one thinks of the surance company UAP to build the beast. First beginning to win his bet and I am very proud that powerful oblong shape of a submarine or maybe christening : the boat is named UAP/Antarctica what he initiated is being pursued with the same of a great sea mammal. soon shortened to Antarctica. spirit.” Others like the architect Olivier Petit, “The shape of an egg, in fact” immediately cor- Leaving the shipyard SFCN in 1989, Antarc- also appreciate that “the sail boat was not bought rects Michel Franco, the schooner’s designer. tica travels through the eponymous continent back by an owner that would have simply put it on “I inspired myself from the natural shape that has during the years 1989-1994 before hibernating, display in the Saint-Tropez harbour” the least possible hold” indicates the engineer in the ice in Spitzberg from 1995 to 1996. Jean- Repaired, certified Veritas and rechristened “the egg”. Louis Etienne leads most of the expeditions. Tara - the name of Etienne Bourgois’ grand Tara V was built 17 years ago for the exact “She is a very reliable ship… I saw her in Ross father’s first boat- the polar schooner is finally sailing expedition that it is accomplishing to- Sea by 71° south and with a 60 knot wind, operated conditioned for the expedition that it had ini- day : a polar drift on pack ice. “It was while I by the automatic … while we were inside tas- tially been intended for before its birth : an Arc- was travelling in the in 1982, on board ting excellent claret” recalls Michel Franco with tic drift. During five months, Etienne Bourgois of a 12 meter that I started to think of a boat that longing… even Sir Peter Blake did not hesitate to and Jean Collet, the first captain when she was could be caught in the ice without being crushed by have her cross a hurricane”. Antarctica, worked on the preparation of the the pack ice.” Continues Michel Franco “I thou- In 1999, Antarctica is indeed bought by Sir boat that was even dismasted. Six expeditions ght of a rounded shape obeying to the “olive stone” Peter Blake. The winner of the Fastnet, Sydney- were organised between the summer of 2004 principle : when the pressure exerted on the hull is Hobart races and the America’s cup had retired and beginning 2006. In April 2006, the last too strong, the boat is pushed upward, like an olive from competition. From then on, he worked at technical call took place in France. stone that would be pressed between ones’ fingers.” raising the awareness of the international public Welcomed during three months by the Rural To prevent the ice from having any hold on the opinion to environmental issues in particular Conglomeration of the Lorient District, Tara boat, two centre boards were preferred to a keel global warming. The polar schooner was used put up her wind generators, reinforced her wind – it is the biggest centerboarder in the world as a platform for this campaign. Rechristened screens, and repaired one of her engines… Du- with its 36 m length and 10 m width. Its hull Seamaster, he returned in the Antarctic for ring the same time, Philippe Clais, in charge of is in aluminium, a metal “that hardens when the several missions in 2000 and 2001. In Decem- administrative issues, followed the purchasing or- temperatures are low whereas steel breaks” further ber of 2001, Seamaster was in the Amazone to ders, coordinated the supplies, organised the tests explains Michel Franco. study the effects of industrial waste on wildlife etc…and ensured that the budget was respected. An engineer’s dream, the schooner is also when pirates climbed on board and murdered Finally on the 11th of July, the ship departed and an explorer’s boat thought out by an explorer, Sir Peter Blake… sailed up north. Following the route of Nansen’s Jean-Louis Etienne… Why a sail boat ? “For “Alistair Moore, one of Peter’s crew members, Fram, the schooner left behind and a greater operating range” answers Olivier Petit, was the one who told me one day ‘Etienne, you are penetrated into the archipelago labyrinths and the boat’s architect with Luc Bouvet. “The sail is crazy enough to buy this old thing” remembers the the Great North ice… Up North, closer to the the most autonomous engine that exists”… As for manager of agnes b. An experienced sailor with North… toward the end of the earth.

ocean. A group of deaf people from the association “Les montagnes du silence” (the Mountains of Silence), led by Daniel Buffard, land on the island and renew sir ’s crossing. The First Expeditions 2004-2006 navigator Catherine Chabaud and the high mountain guide Paul Pellecuer lead them there. Since she has been named Tara, the former Seamaster and ex Antarctica has not laid In January and February 2005, it is the artists who take their quarters on board of the schooner. idle. Becoming most certainly one of the most current active sailboats, she has cove- The Brazilian photographer, Sebastião Salgado, in partnership with the United Nations Environ- red 40 000 nautical miles in two years, from the 65° parallel south to the 81°north with mental Programme, first uses the boat in January to write the Antarctica chapter of his Genesis Céline Ferrier and Simon Rigal at the helm. project. It is a great photographic black and white fresco that depicts places where nature has remained untouched (see below). In February, contemporary artists with Pierre Huygue and First scientific expedition : summer of 2004, the schooner takes 14 researchers from the GREA Xavier Veilhan come to seek inspiration along the Antarctic Peninsula. (Arctic ecological research group) to the Greenland coastline for two months. The operation ena- Back to South Georgia at the end of 2005 when the with the partici- bles the researchers, led by Olivier Gilg and Brigitte Sabard, to multiply the trips on the Green- pation of Ellen Mac Arthur, the navigator, carries out three studies from Tara : observations of land coast that is usually difficult to access. The boat is on the go 18 hours a day. The smooth use glaciers and sea lion population as well as the census of two petrel species. of Tara enables to perform the wildlife census in the wildness, to discover four new paleo-eskimo Finally, at the beginning of 2006, Etienne Bourgois and Jean Collet, the first skipper of the boat, sites as well as to study the geological structure of the volcanic margin. cruise through the Patagonia Canals. This is to validate technical choices before launching the The same year, in December, Tara draws alongside South Georgia, the gem of the Australian sailboat into the great Arctic drift adventure.

Animal populations’ census in Greenland. (2004) Tara allows for a relatively safe approach of the species

Thanks to Sebastião Salgado/Amazonas Images © 4

Le Journal Tara Expeditions - Damocles N° 1 - dec. 2006 www.taraexpeditions.org

Caught in the pack ice with the help of the icebreaker Kapitan Dranitsyn, (below right), Tara must embark in her flanks a two year food supply for ten people. In case of a serious problem, the Russian helicopters are the only possible rescuers.

TheTheoretically Tara and herlogistic crew are self- to Vladimir Poutine on polarheadache issues, has proven down in the ice by percolation. The more an- reliant until December 2008. But the lack essential. One can count on the experience of cient ice is thus more drinkable. One still needs of chocolate is already beginning to be felt Russian pilots to establish links even if they are to recognize it and to go get it… in the utter part of a very exclusive club today. “Military pilots darkness of the polar night. The first priority for Tara is to keep safe. Iso- who watched over the Arctic during the cold war are Finally, there is the food. Hélène Santener lated during four months in absolute darkness becoming fewer” regrets Romain Troublé. already in charge of supplies on the schooner and by temperatures that can verge on minus Another headache : the fuel. It is absolutely when she was called “Antarctica” has planned the 45 C°, the crew is confronted to life conditions necessary to enable helicopters to depart from food intakes for the next two years given a ten that resemble more those of a spatial mission the Tara base but also for Tara to supply herself person crew. Choosing, buying, conditioning than those of a shipwreck on a desert island… with energy. And this fuel must be stocked : 30 and storing away on board…“ is a profession in “Tara is actually at ten-hour-helicopter flight away tons of fuel for the boat and 8 tons for the he- itself : just by getting rid of all the packaging to save from the closest settlement in good weather condi- licopters… On board, electric heating has been space, we were able to fill half a container” recalls tions.” explains, Romain Troublé, a seasoned na- replaced by a thermal boiler and 14 radiators. Romain Troublé. “And when everything has been vigator, in charge of the logistic coordination of Hervé Henry, professor at the University of Bor- conditioned, one still has to remember of the place the expedition. “The first runway is 1 500 km away deaux has worked out the energy aspect of the ex- where the different packages are stored… a map and helicopters must refuel mid-way before reaching pedition. Four wind turbines supply the boat with is necessary to find a salami!” After one month the schooner. It would be necessary to organize a full 6,5 kw/h. As soon as daylight will reappear, in on board one had to admit that the necessary expedition to evacuate a seriously injured person du- March, solar panels will feed an additional 6kw/h. quantity of chocolate had been under estima- The mini bulldozer is used to move about heavy equipment and to prepare a runway ring the polar winter.” The worst has been foreseen Third important point : fresh water. It is not ted. 493 chocolate bars had been planned for for the helicopter landings. and the safety logistic rests on a specialized insu- provided for on board… One has to help one- two years and 56 have already been eaten up. At rer and on Russian know-how. To that effect, the self from the pack ice. Made up of sea water, this rate, the ship would need to be re-supplied efficiency of , special adviser it is ordinarily salted, but the salt tends to go every six months just for chocolate !

Scientist and adventurer? Explorer and poet? rature, encounters…”.With the political collapse BERNARD “His profession remains a complete mystery to me” of the Soviet Union in 1989, Bernard Buigues confides one of his friends “one could say of him had the intuition that the pole was going to be- BUIGUES that he is an entrepreneur in the first sense of the come more accessible from Siberia rather than word”. Of course, Bernard Buigues cannot be from Canada. He was right! He reactivated a categorized… and that can sometimes be tricky former Russian base, Barneo, and organised a The portrait for him. In 1997 for instance, when he decided few expeditions. Dividing his time between Pa- to extract a 20 000 years old mammoth, whole, ris and Khatanga in Siberia, he is the essential of a visionary from the frozen land of Siberia, palaeontolo- Tara interface with the local Russian authori- gists had a hard time taking him seriously… ties, finicky but inescapable. Part of the logistic explorer And yet, the Jarkov mammoth was actually re- and especially the safety aspects of the expedi- moved from the earth and hauled by helicopter, tion are coordinated from Russia. with only his superb tusks exceeding from the cube of frozen earth in which he was waiting Theses relations have to be kept up and po- to be found for the last twenty millenniums. lished. But at the end of these tedious tasks The picture remained unforgettable and Jarkov, there is a promised land for the explorer. “Some the mammoth, remains one of the most beau- people are bored after fifteen minutes on the pack tiful palaeontology pieces of these last years. ice. Not me. But it is not always simple : one has to The Tara Arctic project, a mixture of adventure, love deserts to love the ice fields of the Great North” science and poetry, obviously carries the trade- attempts the adventurer-poet-administrator, mark of Bernard Buigues. “the pack ice is nature : it is rich, very rich but can- not be perceived in a self evident way. It is not a The Great North virus? Bernard caught it sight that one can just watch in all its beauty. To October 1999 : extraction of the Jarkov mammoth nearly thirty years ago. “The sister of my girl friend appreciate it, one has to learn how to cleanse one’s in its permafrost block. was dating Jean-Louis Etienne. In 1979 he took way of looking at it”. me to Greenland… And then, there was polar lite- 9

Le Journal Tara Expeditions - Damocles N° 1 - dec. 2006 www.taraexpeditions.org

Caught in the ice, Tara is not immobile. The pack ice lifts up the schooner and creates lists that can reach 15°. There are also times when the pack ice breaks up and dislocates itself… One has to fetch the scientific equipment drifting away on the ice cubes in the midst of the polar night.

Eight personalities, nearly as many different doctor is second in command. Former doctor professions, three different languages and a on the Foch aircraft-carrier, he keeps the ac- permanent promiscuity during the five month counts of … the storeroom. “Meals, more than polar night. The first part of the drift will be anywhere else, take on particular importance for played tightly. The first safety problem is not the crew’s moral”. He writes in his food assess- Eight men to fall asleep. “With the permanent night, one has ment at the end of September. the tendency to doze of, to lose the notion of days” The chief mechanic is called Nicolas Quentin remarks Etienne Bourgois… It is necessary to keep and is 27 years old. He is in charge of energy a tally of the daily chores in a very precise fashion as management and machines. Merchant navy in a boat well as the sleeping hours.” officer, he has already participated to four The main task of Grant Redvers, chief of missions or expeditions in polar areas. Hervé the base is to supervise security matters. At Bourmaud, second mechanic, and captain of 33, this New-Zealander, who has a scientific the boat, is also in charge of the dogs and deck back-ground but also training as a skipper and manoeuvre. This fishing master is 35 years old a diving certificate, has already spent three and has ten years of offshore fishery behind in the Antarctic in New Zealand base him. Gamet Agamyrzaev, 42 years old, assists Scott and one year aboard Tara. He continuous- Nicolas and Hervé with their respective tasks, ly reminds the crew of the rules to abide to as but he is especially a great pole specialist. Polar soon as one leaves the ship : never go alone, logistician, he has spent twenty years in Siberia. be armed and equipped with flares. The bears For now, Matthieu Weber is the only crew are a real source of danger and the two dogs member representing the scientific world on supposed to give the alarm did not smell board. This 27 years old French engineer is anything when a great male first approached mandated by the Damocles Programme to the ship in September. install and watch over the scientific equipment Denys Bourget, 55 years old, the onboard until daylight returns.

In complete darkness, by temperatures reaching minus 45°C, the life conditions of the crew resemble those of a spatial mission.

8th September 2006 : the last helicopter leaves Tara. The schooner and her crew are going to remain on their own during the five polar winter months.

10

Le Journal Tara Expeditions - Damocles N° 1 - dec. 2006 www.tara expeditio ns.org

Nor th Pole melt-down A SUPE R ECONOMIC DEAL The disappearance of the Ar ctic pa ck ice in the summer will pr obably entail the polar bears’ extinctio n. It will also ho w ev er make a few peo- ple happ y : those who hav e sought for a nor - thern passag e betw een the A merican and Asian co ntinents ov er the past centuries. This possibility to link the P a cific to the A t - lantic b y dodging in and out of icebergs and ar chipelag os could w ell chang e fr o m myth to r eality in a v ery short time . “The N orth West P assag e” in northern Cana da or “N orthen Sea Route” in northern Siberia could w ell beco me m uch used maritime r outes as the globalisatio n of ex chang es incr eases. Maritime transportatio n and oil exploratio n take a dvantag e of it

Those most co ncerned with these new passa- g es ar e the giant co ntainer carrier o wners. Their a ctivity incr eases b y 15% ea ch y ear and 55% of their fleet has been r enew ed in the last ten y ears. Their boats ar e no w too big to cr oss the Panama Canal. Yet the cir cuitous r oute that they borr o w has to depart fr o m pr oducing countries in Asia to join co nsuming countries in Eur ope and N orthern A merica. The “N orth West P assag e” or the “N orthen Sea Route”, w ould make them sav e nearly 4 000 km if they w er e fr ee fr o m the ice . A r eal deal! A nd ther e is the oil. Since 2004, exploratio n has r estarted and the first r esults ar e pr o mising , especially in the Bar ents Sea. Christian de Mar- liav e , the scientific coor dinator of Tara Ar ctic r emar ks that “the dat a g athered b y the progr amme will b e v ery imp ort ant t o the oil industry . To know if the p ack ice will remain during the summer in 20 y ears is for the oil pro ducers the p ossibility t o p lan exp lor ations during that same time” . He a dds. Ov erall, the melting of the pa ck ice whets ev e- ry o ne’s appetite . The Ar ctic Council, instigator of the A CIA r eport that was the first to giv e the alert o n warming has decided this y ear to r eo - Soon, icebr eakers might no longer be rient its pr eoccupatio ns to war ds r esour ce exploi- necessary… The melting of the poles opens tatio n. “The Arctic human communities are b ased new channels for the maritime transportation on the use of natur al resources (…). Yet, the imp or- of commodities, in full expansion. t ance of non renewab le resources is on the rise . With fishery , miner al and fossil fue l exp loit ation is pre - sently at the ro ot of the re gion’s economies.” N otes the N orw egian Councils’ pr esidency in its 2006-2008 pr ogramme . Etienne Bour gois A t 46 y ears old of which 27 hav e been spent Etienne Bourg ois is meticulous and pr epar es in the co mpan y, the managing dir ector of agnès expeditio ns like he manag es his co mpan y “I b . rar ely does things b y halv es. But the so n of dr aw t o-do lists!”. But he also can be passio nate The pa ck ice melting Corporate the fashio n designer Agnès Tr oublé and the pu- and make those ar ound him feel passio nate . “H e whets blisher Christian Bourg ois, is for emost a co nfir- is typical of these entrepreneurs as they were descri- r espo nsibility med navigator, co ming fr o m a family of sailors. b ed in the Renaissance : prot ect or of the arts and ev ery o ne’s appetite A dolp he Tr oublé , the grand-father, intr oduced science . In a more cont emp or ary languag e , one can Etienne when he was v ery y oung o n a Dufour say that he is inv o lv ed”, sa ys o ne of his friends. So me bor dering countries of the Ar ctic sea 35 christened… Tara III. As for Bruno Tr oublé , The drift of Tara is claimed to be “ a commitment claim a right to exploit these potential r esour - the uncle , skipper of bar o n Bich and initiator of for the p lanet” . ces. Denmar k located w ell at the south of the the Louis Vuitto n cup , he encourag ed the ma - To co mbine corporate manag ement with polar cir cle , a dministers ho w ev er the gigantic naging dir ector to participate in r egattas during en vir o nmental, humanitarian or artistic issues Gr eenland and for this r easo n cov ets the right the sev enties. (agnès b . also o wns tw o art galleries, a movie to exploit the sea bed that str etches betw een the But with Tara, Etienne Bourg ois denies v e - pr oductio n co mpan y and an art magazine), en- Gr eenland and the g eograp hic pole . hemently having co nformed to a selfish hobb y. tails to co nsider o neself as a guide , nearly as an The Ar ctic drift, for which partners ar e still opinio n lea der. “As ric h energy consuming coun - The dividing of the Ar ctic is not y et a matter being sought after is not the infatuatio n of a tries, we hav e a true resp onsibility that must b e of fr ee-for-all but its co nsequences ar e potenti- C OO taken b y a dv entur es. “I don’ t like big words visib le at eac h lev e l . At agnès b . we hav e recently ally disastr ous for the en vir o nment. Jean-Claude like corp or at e citizen, esp ecially since these are oft en b e gun a study with the comp any Be Citizen. The Gascar d, dir ector of r esear ch at the oceanogra- used for pub licity purp oses” he warns. The co -mpa comp any will hav e t o t ake int o account new issues p hic laboratory of the P aris-Jussieu Univ ersity, n y lea ders hav e mor eov er privately funded the suc h as energy , climat e , and resources”. In the end, draws attentio n o n the possible w orsening of boat and the expeditio n. Yet, when the mana - Etienne Bourg ois hopes that the co nsumer will the polar collapse in case boat traffic incr eases ging dir ector decides to ta ckle global warming , demand ethic tra ceability with his pur chases, “the so ot that is dep osit ed b y the b o ats on the ice it is with a cr o w d of experts that he g oes to the including clothes. Without sa ying it out loud, do es not reflect b ack sunr ays but absorbs them and poles. “I would nev er hav e made Tar a drift on the the corporatio n topic brings ba cks inex orably to acce ler at es the me lting pro cess. A few y ears ag o , I p ack ice one century aft er N ansen had it not b een civic r espo nsibility. noticed that the p ack ice could thus b e eat en b y the b acked b y a strong scientific project”. so ot. It lo o ked like a real Swiss c heese”. 11

Le Journal Tara Expeditio ns - Damocles N° 1 - dec. 2006