Falklands : Ellen MacArthur - Another Christmas Away from Home
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 13.12.2005 (Article Archived on 27.12.2005)
The BBC's Dee Palmer calledDame Ellen MacArthur and asked her about her trip to South Georgia.
ELLEN MACARTHUR – ANOTHER CHRISTMAS AWAY FROM HOME
A Report for BBC World Service “Calling the Falklands” by Dee Palmer (DP) 09/12/05
On Monday Dame Ellen MacArthur (EM) is making a return visit to the Falklands on route to South Georgia. She’s joining Sally Poncet on the Golden Fleece to take part in a survey of the Island’s birds, especially the Albatross colonies. The two women met when Ellen visited the Falklands in 2004, with her newly launched trimaran , B&Q. I phoned Ellen and asked her why she was choosing to spend Christmas counting Albatross instead of putting her feet up at home and enjoying the mince pies.
EM: The Southern Ocean and South Georgia in particular is a place I would really like to go to. When we race down there we don’t get the chance to stop. We try and take things in but you are always concentrating on the race itself. So to have the time to actually take things in properly and spend some time there to look at what’s around, it would be fantastic. And, I think it is really cool that I met Sally when I was down in the Falkland Islands at the beginning of last year with B&Q when we delivered her from New Zealand. She handed me the report, which I read on the way back . I was horrified by what I read, really. It was something I had not been aware of before.
DP: So you are actually going to get involved with Sally Poncet in doing this census on South Georgia.
EM: I am not going to stand there waving the flag saying you should do this or shouldn’t do that. To actually go there and to see what the situation is and see what is happening and talk to people down there hopefully will be very useful and educational. I am bringing a cameraman down with me so when we come back we will show what’s happening down there.
DP: So you are hoping to get some video reports on the TV networks worldwide and get a bit more publicity?
EM: As with everything I do, I want to share as much as possible with people who want to hear about it. It’s the same with the races – it’s exactly the same with this trip. I don’t just go ahead and do it on my own. I would like to go there and bring back as much as I can about the place in words, film and photos.
DP: How much did it mean to you when you were at sea on your own to actually be seeing the birds – the Albatross, the Petrels – as they are flying overhead?
EM: The birds bring the ocean to life. We know there are fish in the sea and Dolphins and we see those from time to time there isn’t a day in the Southern Ocean when there isn’t a bird with you. I don’t think I have ever seen one day – there is always something and that’s really special and you don’t feel alone because of that. You are down there sometimes for over a month. It’s a long time to be in an open, wide, dangerous, isolated ocean. But you don’t feel that when the birds are around. It’s astonishing.
DP: Now, one thing that I think might worry some people in the Falklands and South Georgia is that clearly you are highlighting the decline in the Albatross population there but people might think that’s because the birds are being killed around the Islands. In fact, the fisheries there are very well managed. The danger the birds are facing is elsewhere. And, I wonder if it is going to be possible to get that distinction across to people who don’t know the real situation.
EM: The reason I am going down there is because South Georgia is a place that is accessible and that’s going to be very clear in any footage – anything that comes back. But it highlights it to go and see the birds. It makes people aware of what Albatross are. They are never lucky enough to ever see one. It’s quite rare, particularly for people in the Northern Hemisphere to be able to imagine what they are like. That’s the reason to go down to South Georgia. The knowledge that Albatross are being killed all over the Southern Ocean is actually quite wide. People don’t think it’s around South Georgia. People are aware that it’s the fishing all around. The articles I have seen written in this country in the UK have talked very much about the fact that Albatross can circle the world in 46 days. As I said at the beginning, it’s important to bring back what the reality is. It’s not just going down there to wave the flag and saying these birds need help. It’s to actually tell the story as it is and that will be very much part of it.
DP: And, after this trip to South Georgia, what then?
EM: After South Georgia it’s back home for a few weeks in Europe and then take off to Asia for two months to establish crewed record with the team onboard the B&Q so I am going to be pretty busy for the next few months.
(100X Transcription and Monitoring Service)
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