The head of France’s polar science institute voiced fury at the misadventures of a Russian ship trapped in Antarctic ice, deriding what he called a tourists’ trip that had diverted resources from real science.
Yves Frenot, director of the French Polar Institute, said he had no issue at all with rescuing those aboard the stricken vessel. He said, however, the trip itself was a “pseudo-scientific expedition” that, because it had run into difficulties, had drained resources from the French, Chinese and Australian scientific missions in Antarctica.
The Russian vessel, the Akademik Shokalskiy, became stuck on Dec. 24 last year in frozen seas. Its 52 passengers — scientists, tourists and journalists — were later airlifted to an Australian government supply vessel, the Aurora Australis, using a helicopter from a Chinese icebreaker, the Xue Long. But then the Xue Long itself was trapped in the ice, and the Aurora Australis was placed on standby to see if the Chinese ship needed help.
Photo: EPA
照片:歐新社
Because of the rescue operations, French scientists had had to scrap a two-week oceanographic campaign, said Frenot.
“But we are relatively lucky,” he said. “The Chinese have had to cancel their entire scientific program, and my counterpart in Australia is spitting tacks with anger, because their entire summer has been wiped out.”
(Liberty Times)
法國極地科學研究所主管對於一艘俄羅斯船隻最近被困在南極海冰中一事表達憤怒,並嘲諷這場觀光客之旅分散了真正科學研究的資源。
法國極地研究所所長佛赫諾表示,他對援救被困船隻上的所有人員並無異議。但他也說,這趟旅行本身是「假科學考察」,而且更因為考察船陷入困境,反而消耗了法國、中國與澳洲在南極地區進行的科學研究資源。
俄羅斯科學考察船「紹卡利斯基院士號」在去年十二月二十四日被困在南極海冰中。船上的五十二名乘客,包括科學家、觀光客和記者後來透過中國破冰船「雪龍號」的直升機被空運到澳洲政府船隻「南極光號」上。但接著雪龍號也被困在冰中,南極光號被迫在附近待命支援這艘中國船。
但因為這場救援行動,法國科學家必須取消一項兩週的海洋研究計畫,佛赫諾說。
「但我們已經算是運氣好的,」他說。「中國必須取消所有的科學計畫,而我的澳洲同僚更是氣得咬牙切齒,因為他們整個夏天的研究全部泡湯了。」
(自由時報/翻譯:俞智敏)
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