“The Antarctic Peninsula is warming five times faster than the average rate of the Earth’s warming,” says expedition leader Cristian Donoso. “Many species that had evolved to live in these harsh conditions are now losing their only home.”
For 550 miles Donoso, Juan Pablo Ortega and Roger Rovira will paddle self-support throughout Antarctica to study the effects of the crisis. The group will travel along the Danco coast of Antarctica’s peninsula in the Palmer Archipelago. The group will also circumnavigate Anvers and Brabant Islands, visiting Lockroy (England), Palmer (U.S.), and Islas Melchior (Argentina) research bases along the way. It will also circumnavigate Trinity Island near the end of their journey.
Hats off to the hard guys, because the trip will be entirely self-supported through some of the harshest conditions in the world, including dodging massive ice flows and battling furious Antarctic storms. The only outside help available is the Antarctic Dream that will pick them up at the end of February. This trip will be the longest unsupported sea kayak expedition in Antarctica.
The expedition can be tracked from the expedition’s home page at www.antarctickayak.com. Eventually, the research they conduct will be used to create a documentary, book and website all from the point of view of the kayakers.
The kayakers’ documentation will focus not only on the effects of global warming on the ice shelf but also on how global warming affects the local penguin population. The kayakers are able to document the penguins better from their kayaks due to their relatively low impact, stealth and mobility.
This is the second time that this group has done a major expedition together. Last year they took a trip to Chile to explore Patagonia. The expedition is by sponsored by Kokatat, Prijon, Aquapac, and Euro Adventures.