DEBATE rages over the merits of the scientific expedition which sparked a major rescue operation in Antarctica as an American icebreaker races to free two ships with more than 120 people aboard caught in sea ice near Commonwealth Bay. The Polar Star cut short its stay in Sydney to go to the aid of Russian tourist ship Akademik Shokalskiy and the Chinese icebreaker Xue Long. The Akademik Shokalskiy was trapped by sea ice on Christmas Day and the Xue Long became stuck during last week's operation to evacuate tourists and scientists from the ship. The Russian ship was retracing the steps of Sir Douglas Mawson's Australasian Antarctic expedition when it became stuck. A helicopter from the Chinese ship transferred 52 people from the Akademik Shokalskiy to the Australian icebreaker Aurora Australis on Thursday. They are now en route to Casey station. Director of the French Polar Institute, Yves Frenot, at the weekend described the Russian trip as a "pseudo-scientific expedition" which had caused massive disruption to the science programs of three nations. "This kind of commemorative expedition has no interest from a scientific point of view," he said. Because of the rescue operations, French scientists had to scrap a two-week oceanographic journey aboard the MV Astrolabe and further disruption had been caused to the Australian program. "The Chinese have had to cancel all their scientific program, and my counterpart in Australia is spitting tacks with anger, because their entire summer has been wiped out." But Spirit of Mawson expedition leader Professor Chris Turney hit back, saying they were frustrated over "what appears to be a misrepresentation of the expedition in some news outlets". "We have been accused of being a tourist trip with little scientific value," he wrote. But he said the expedition was not a "jolly tourist trip" as some had claimed, and that it will be judged by its peer-reviewed publications on the scientists' return. There are 101 crew members, scientists and journalists aboard Xue Long and 22 Russian crew members remain aboard the Akademik Shokalskiy. The Sue Long's captain Wang Jianzhong told Xinhua news agency the ship had been surrounded by ice due to lasting strong winds in the past days, with the thickest layer reaching three to four metres. Spirit of Mawson Expedition doctor Andrew Peacock said there was no little irony in a ship with climate scientists aboard getting caught in ice. "Of course it is ironic if people are basing their thoughts on this with the idea that there was more ice than 'normal' or that there had been a change in this area with regard to more ice forming because the climate was colder this season," he said. Dr Peacock said the ice was unexpectedly thick and previous charts had shown rafted old pack ice to be well away from the area they were travelling in.

• published: 06 Jan 2014
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