An Estimated 60,000 Animals Will Be Saved Because of Deep Freeze Apr. 24, 2007 A rescue effort is under way to save hundreds of seal hunters whose boats have been stuck in a block of thick ice in the North Atlantic Ocean for more than a week. The hunters' ships are stuck in a solid ice pack 140 miles long and 70 miles wide. Two huge storms trapped more than 100 vessels just as they were setting out for Canada's annual seal hunt. "Many of the vessels have run out of provisions, fresh water, fuel in some cases," Canadian Coast Guard Capt. Windross Banton told "Good Morning America" from his ship as he engaged in the rescue effort. Banton is trying to get food to more than 300 sailors and help their ships break free from the ice. "Right now, outside as far as the eye can see, there is nothing but a field of ice," he said. The biggest danger is the pressure the ice puts on the vessels. The pressure can actually lift them out of the water.

"The pans of ice and the pieces of ice are big enough and severe enough they could potentially crush the hull of the long liners," said the Canadian Coast Guard's Brian Penney. Better weather conditions have now allowed several ships to be rescued. For some, it was in the nick of time. "The last couple of days got scary there," said Rodney Gray, captain of the Cape John Navigator. "We were caught in ice that was getting very close to land. We never had control of anything. Wherever the ice went, we had to go." These boats are engaged in the highly controversial seal hunt. Over the last three years, 1 million seals have been killed, and animal rights activists say they're sometimes killed in inhumane ways. Now it is the hunters who are in danger. Animal rights activists might take solace in the fact that because so many ships have been stranded, the seal hunters will most likely not meet their quota. An estimated 60,000 seals have been spared because of the stranded ships.

Holiday campers and picnickers joined conservation officials in New Zealand for what turned into a marathon rescue effort for a pod of beached whales. The pod of 28 pilot whales was first stranded as the tide went out Wednesday at Farewell Spit, at the top end of New Zealand's South Island. Five whales died immediately. About 55 volunteers, recruited from holiday makers in the area, pitched in with 10 staff members from the Department of Conservation in a rescue effort. The rescue workers gently rocked and talked to the whales as the animals let out cries of distress in the shallow waters of a bay. "We got out there and just tried to keep them upright and rock them so they could get their bearings again, and we just tried to lead them out to sea a little bit," said Michael Gunn, one of the volunteers. "We were very lucky to have enough volunteers," said Greg Napp of the Department of Conservation. "There are a lot of people in the bay camping and holidaying."

Second Beaching...

The workers stuck with the task into the night, eventually getting most of the whales out to sea. But at dawn on Thursday, the whales had beached themselves again and a second rescue was launched. Three more whales died, but the remaining 20 whales in the pod made it back out to sea. "It's a really emotional high watching them swim away. It's one of the best feelings you'll ever have," Napp said. By Thursday afternoon, the pod was 2.5 miles (four km) off the coast.

The ozone hole is a completely different phenomenon to global warming, however there are links between them. The ozone hole is caused by ozone depleting chemicals in the atmosphere, which have been produced by industry, for example CFCs. One link is that CFCs are also 'greenhouse gasses'. Enhanced global warming is a probable consequence of increasing amounts of 'greenhouse gasses', such as carbon dioxide and methane, in the atmosphere. Although the surface of the earth warms, higher up the atmosphere cools, thus increasing the area where stratospheric clouds can form. This makes a larger area susceptible to ozone depletion and provides another link between the two issues.

Why does the ozone hole form over Antarctica ? The answer is essentially 'because of the weather in the ozone layer'. In order for rapid ozone destruction to happen, clouds (known as PSCs, Stratospheric Clouds Mother of Pearl or Nacreous Clouds) have to form in the ozone layer. In these clouds surface chemistry takes place. This converts chlorine or bromine (from CFCs and other ozone depleting chemicals) into an active form, so that when there is sunlight, ozone is rapidly destroyed. Without the clouds, there is little or no ozone destruction. Only during the Antarctic winter does the atmosphere get cold enough for these clouds to form widely through the centre of the ozone layer. Elsewhere the atmosphere is just too warm and no clouds form.

The northern and southern hemispheres have different 'weather' in the ozone layer, and the net result is that the temperature of the Arctic ozone layer during winter is normally some ten degrees warmer than that of the Antarctic. This means that such clouds are rare, but sometimes the 'weather' is colder than normal and they do form. Under these circumstances significant ozone depletion can take place over the Arctic, but it is usually for a much shorter period of time and covers a smaller area than in the Antarctic.

Situation at 2007 June 27 The winter polar vortex is beginning to build, and higher ozone values, approaching 400 DU in places, are seen outside the vortex. The temperature of the ozone layer is sufficiently cold for stratospheric clouds to form. Some areas of Antarctica have already seen ozone values down to ozone hole levels (220 DU), suggesting the possibility of early chemical depletion, combined with some dynamic processes. In early June 2007 the minimum temperature of the Antarctic stratosphere was close to the normal, suggesting the likelihood of an average ozone hole year. Note: The Antarctic ozone hole is usually largest in early September and deepest in late September to early October. September 16 is world ozone day. 2007 is the International Year of the Ozone Layer. Prior to the formation of ozone holes, Antarctic ozone values were normally at their lowest in the autumn.