New team to save Antarctic port from climate change

A new team of UK specialists is embarking on a 9,000-mile journey to Antarctica to protect a British science base threatened by climate change.

The UK Antarctic Heritage Trust (UKAHT), a Cambridge-based charity, is in its second year of a three-year mission to save Port Lockroy.

Its goal is to restore the site, which has the world's southernmost Post Office, museum, and more than 1,000 gentoo penguins.

This year's team will install beams and props to help the buildings withstand increased precipitation and snow loading, as well as monitor the penguins.

The site is more than 80 years old and faces structural deterioration due to rising temperatures and extreme weather on the rapidly warming Antarctic Peninsula.

After initial assessments revealed serious structural weaknesses, last year's team prepared the site ready for this season's interventions, which UKAHT said was the charity's "biggest ever conservation season" at Port Lockroy.

Port Lockroy faces escalating deterioration from age, climate change and environmental factors, said UKAHT.

A team of eight will spend five months at remote Base A, Port Lockroy on Goudier Island, while a field team of six specialists will travel further south to carry out the first comprehensive survey of another British heritage site, Wordie House, where one of the longest continuous climate records on the continent began.

The Port Lockroy team will be led by Carole McCullough, who previously worked in the RAF, and said: "I applied for the role looking for a bit of an adventure, and Antarctica is the ultimate adventure.

"The teamwork, the bonding, the appreciation of the place - it's all going to make for the most wonderful experience."

She will be joined by others with various life experiences including conservation carpenters and museum and mountain rescue specialists.

Camilla Nichol, UKAHT's chief executive officer, said: "With the demanding conservation season ahead at Port Lockroy and beyond to Wordie House, we have selected a team who bring specialist knowledge and understanding of the Antarctic environment, as well as some much needed enthusiasm and resilience.

"This is a huge year for us as we meet the growing challenges of climate change.

"Since Wordie House's records began in 1947, the Antarctic Peninsula has become one of the fastest-warming places on the planet and we see the impact every year on the wildlife and special places in our care."

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