Antarctic Ship Free From Ice But Counting Cost

There may be cuts to the Australian Antarctic Division's summer program to make up for the cost of its supply ship being stuck in ice. The Aurora Australis was icebound for about three weeks near Casey Station, but broke free over night. The division's operations manager Robb Clifton says while it is not unusual for the ship to get stuck, it is an expensive event. Mr Clifton says it costs tens of thousands of dollars to run the supply ship every day.

"It certainly has an impact, we're working through that at the moment to see what our various options are for the rest of the season," he said. "There's no doubt it will have some impact so it's a case for us now, in some cases, switching over to plan B and getting on with the season." Mr Clifton says the ship should arrive in Hobart this week. "We're hoping that will be sometime on Friday or Saturday, it depends what the weather's like between where they are and Hobart." "At the moment they're going along really well but we do expect them to hit a bit of rougher weather on the way and that will slow them down a bit."