News

19.08.2011

The first flights of the Antarctic season are set to go tomorrow, following four months of total darkness and six months of isolation for New Zealand’s winter-over team on the Ice. The initial flight of this year’s annual programme, known as WINFLY, departs from Christchurch on Saturday. The full press release can be found here.

17.08.2011

Antarctica New Zealand Arts Fellow, Dave Dobbyn has been selected by North & South Magazine for their images from influential New Zealanders project.  Dave’s image was taken during his time at Scott Base and is being auctioned on Trademe with proceeds going to a charity of his choice. You can view the auction here:

09.08.2011

With the Swedish icebreaker Oden unavailable this season the United States programme is currently considering a number of potential options to break a channel into McMurdo Sound to enable the resupply of both McMurdo Station and Scott Base. In the event another Ice breaker cannot be found this will have a potentially significant impact on both the 2011/12 and 2012/13 seasons.  In the meantime Antarctica New Zealand is planning for a full summer season as usual.

08.08.2011

There can be fewer environments harsher than the ponds on Bratina Island, yet Waikato University student Stephen Archer has discovered there is no shortage of bio-diversity. The full story can be found here.

03.08.2011

John Evans of Timaru has been selected as this year’s Antarctic Youth Ambassador. The award, developed by Antarctica New Zealand in partnership with the Sir Peter Blake Trust, aims to provide an opportunity for a young New Zealander to contribute to environmental work in Antarctica. John is the fourth recipient of this award which attracted a large number of high quality applicants. John is a mechanical engineering student at the University of Canterbury with a strong interest in issues of sustainability. John will be travelling to Scott Base in November 2011, where he will be contributing to the Antarctic Heritage Trust’s restoration project on Captain Scott’s Hut at Cape Evans.

01.08.2011

Dr Nancy Bertler from Victoria University of Wellington and GNS Science has been actively involved in the SCAR programme Antarctica and the Global Climate System (AGCS).  At an AGCS meeting in Melbourne a new initiative called AntarcticClimate21 (AC21) was introduced and Dr Bertler has been asked to be chair. AC21 is a significant international research programme that coordinates a number of different individual international science projects. Antarctica New Zealand congratulates Dr Bertler and it is a credit to her standing as a scientist and her abilities in managing complex multidisciplinary research programmes.

27.07.2011

The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) and Antarctica New Zealand (AntNZ) have updated an existing agreement to work to develop closer scientific collaboration between the programmes. To achieve this AAD and AntNZ will hold a joint Antarctic science conference every three years, share information on strategic direction to identify potential science synergies and collaborate on a combined Antarctic data strategy.

 14.07.2011

 Scholarships for post-graduate research have been awarded to the following students.  The Sir Robin Irvine Antarctic Scholarship was won by Stephen Archer, who is undertaking his PhD at the University of Waikato. The NZ Post Scholarship was won by Holly Goddard, who is completing her Masters, also at the University of Waikato. Kathryn Lister, who is undertaking her PhD at the University of Otago, won the Kelly Tarlton’s Antarctic Scholarship.  You can read more about their research here.  Congratulations to all scholarship winners and good luck with their Antarctic research.

04.07.2011

 The value and relevance of Antarctic science to New Zealand is the focus of the Antarctica New Zealand science conference being held at Waikato University this week (July 4-6).  Read the press release here:

01.07.2011

A new post-doctoral fellow at NIWA is investigating ecological impacts of one of the most pressing threats to the world’s oceans: ocean acidification.  Ocean acidification has the potential to affect the basic life functions of key species, such as shellfish, and change ecosystems. It’s expected to particularly affect the cold waters of the Antarctic, but just what this threat might mean to Antarctic ecosystems is largely unknown. To read the press release go here: