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Life Onboard |
LAST UPDATE
July 12, 2005
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| site design imagesparkle.com |
| December 12, 2004 |
Expedition of the Sea Master to Antarctica and the Amazon – Don Robertson |
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| Don Robertson |
As Peace Boat made its way down the Atlantic coast of South America, round the Cape of Good Horn, through the Straits of Magellan and into Pacific waters, yachtsman and expeditioner Don Robertson shared his experiences of journeying into the heart of the Amazon and Antarctica with the late Sir Peter Blake. |
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| The Seamaster, a polar expedition vessel refitted for the Amazon River |
Don Robertson was part of the New Zealand team, led by Blake, who in 1995 won The Americas Cup – the oldest yachting event in the world. After having defended their title in 2000, Peter Blake and a team of environmental enthusiasts and his team of yachtsmen took to the high seas to examine the ecosystem in some of the natural worlds’ most significant areas. The aims of such “Blakexpeditions” (as they are known) were to make people fall in love with the natural beauty of the world, by reporting directly from the source itself. “We want to restart people caring for the environment as it must be cared for, and we want to do this through adventure, participation, education and enjoyment. Technology gives us the ability to bring our experiences into homes, offices and classrooms around the world. We are reporting on what we find – not glamourised – just how it is”. |
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| Sir Peter Blake getting close to nature |
The Antarctic
In 2000 a group of ten seamen with Blakexpeditions sailed from New Zealand on a polar sailing ship named ‘Seamaster’ to the coldest continent on Earth as the beginning of a five-year plan to study and report about the effects of global warming, pollution and exploitation in environmentally sensitive parts of the world. Don explained that the observations made along the way were records of the wonders of the natural world. However, the all over the world, there was always visible evidence of man’s presence and destruction of the environment. |
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| The team of Peace Boat participants who helped organize Don’s onboard programs |
It is estimated that 40,000 Albatross are caught every year by long-line and drift net fishing, endangering this beautiful, majestic bird of the Antarctic, who so often accompanied Blake, Robertson and their team on their long journeys across the ocean. At one point, Seamaster was also sailing on a previously unexplored area of sea that no one had been on before because an ice shelf previously existed in that spot. For the past 26 years it has receded by approximately one nautical mile per year due to global warming. Blakexpeditions found evidence supporting the prediction that if the polar ice caps continue to disintegrate at this rate, the collapse could raise sea levels by six meters in the next twenty five years. While docked in the Atlantic, they reported these findings, via satellite, to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, where delegations over 80 countries had gathered to discuss the impact of global warming. |
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| Don with his wife and expedition companion Maureen |
As a group of Peace Boat participants were headed to the Antarctic for an overland tour, they listened eagerly as Don talked about the Antarctic Treaty, which was formed in 1969, to monitor, manage and preserve the Polar region. The treaty imposes strict control on tourism and promotes scientific cooperation between nations, as it is an invaluable source for collating meteorological data and observing environmental change. All commercial exploitation of the Antarctic is thus prohibited and in 1989 there was an international ban on all whaling for commercial uses. The whale population had suffered from at least 100 years of whaling and by the 1950s the numbers of three different whale species had dwindled to a mere one percent of their original numbers. Figures have since recovered somewhat and therefore some countries, Japan in particular, are pressing to resume the free commercial hunting of whales. This was a sensitive subject onboard Peace Boat, however with his diplomatic and open-minded approach, Don was able to lead healthy discussions on whaling and increase awareness about the international ban. |
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The Amazon
The Amazon River is the world’s largest river in volume of water and second longest in the world. The Amazon Basin is the earth’s biggest freshwater ecosystem and reservoir and the equatorial rain forest is the largest in the world, occupying 42 percent of the total area of Brazil. It contains one tenth of the earth’s entire plant and animal species and is known as the “lung of the planet”, producing one fifth of the world’s oxygen. Don gave these statistics to give some background information on how important it is to put a stop to the deforestation, the mining, and the exploitation of resources which belong to all living creatures, not just to man.
“Only when the last tree has died, the last river poisoned and the last fish eaten will we realize that we can’t eat money” a Native American saying goes. The Amazon is so immense, it is very easy cut down trees in secrecy and this has resulted in the devastation of an area one and a half time the size of Japan over the past 30 years. Blakexpeditions stressed that it is an international responsibility to save the Amazon from destruction, because large international investors offer local people great benefits in return for hardwood and rubber. Two fly-on-the-wall documentaries were made for the Discovery Channel and the BBC and more contact was made at UNEP conferences during their time in the Amazon. Unfortunately just as Blakexpeditions were achieving world wide recognition and success, Peter Blake lost his life defending the Seamaster and her crew from river pirates, bringing a premature end to the project to survey the earth’s ‘pulse points’.
Don Robertson was Blake’s right hand man, a best friend and above all, a partner. He still has not come to terms with the untimely death of Blake. He spends his time giving lectures and workshops on related environmental issues and enjoying the natural beauty of his homeland New Zealand with his wife Maureen. He dedicated his presentation on whaling to Sir Peter, as it had been a personal ambition to have open discussions with the Japanese public about whaling and cited the last words that Peter Blake wrote in the daily log book: “We have begun. We are underway. We have passion. We want to make a difference”.
“Earth is a water planet on which quality of water defines quality of life. Good water, good life. Poor water, poor life. No water, no life. Man is fishing to extinction species that are vital to earth’s food chain. He is polluting, to a frightening degree, most if not all of the great rivers, lakes, seas and oceans. He is devastating rain forests that are essential keys to the earth’s unique and delicate environmental balance. If this beautiful water planet on which we live is to survive as we know it, something has to be done, and we are determined to help make a difference”.
Sir Peter Blake. |
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