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SIMBA Antarctic Sea Ice

 

Hi Ms Anderson

Josh wants to know if penguins bite.

Garrett- How fast can the ship go through the ice.

 

Fri, 10/12/2007 - 09:05

Sarah Anderson

Great questions, thanks for sending them.Penguins - do they bite? We can't handle the penguins, so I don't have any experience with this! People who have done research on them (where they have applied for permits from the government to handle them) say that they are very strong and will peck at you with their beaks.
Ship speed through ice...this ship is rated to go through ice that is three meters thick at a speed of three knots - that's a little faster than three miles per hour. Sometimes the ship has to back up into clear water and get a "head start" to break up big chunks of ice. Breaking through the ice makes a lot of noise on the ship. It's quite an interesting experience to travel through heavy ice. We definitely don't tangle with icebergs - they have special radar to detect them and the crew keeps a continual visual watch to look for them.
Thanks for writing, please send more questions!
Mrs. Anderson