After an Antarctic campaign conditioned by the coronavirus pandemic that during 2020 and 2021 limited operations on the white continent, Argentina returned this summer to reopen its temporary bases and deploy camps for scientific projects that in many cases are carried out in cooperation with different countries.
The head of the National Antarctic Directorate (DNA), Patricia Ortúzar, stated in a dialogue with Télam that “this Summer Antarctic Campaign (CAV) presented many challenges because we returned to the levels of activity prior to the pandemic with the opening of the summer bases and the deployment of scientific camps, but maintaining the effort of last season in care measures, health protocols, preventive isolations and tests for all deployed personnel.
Ortúzar maintained that “in January, during the peak of the Ómicron variant, there were moments that were complex, but the vast majority of the CAV was able to develop normally, and this in particular was a very important campaign because it is the one of the resumption of activities suspended by the pandemic such as the work in the summer bases, the deployment of scientific camps or international cooperation.”
“The summer Antarctic campaigns represent for Argentina the continuity of a state policy that sustains the uninterrupted presence of our country in its territory on that continent for 118 years; that continuous presence through Science is a fundamental tool in upholding our sovereign rights”, he remarked.
The official pondered that “Argentina is one of the signatory countries of the Antarctic Treaty, a solid mechanism that has been operating by consensus for 60 years and has the strength that each decision that is made is with the commitment of all parties; In this framework, Argentina has a proactive role so that the decisions that are made are aligned with our interests, and a vital tool for this is the provision of scientific information for decision-making”.
“Thanks to the information that our researchers generate year after year through their work in Antarctica, Argentina can provide data that, together with those produced by other countries, is vital to decide based on scientific evidence; If our country did not have that capacity to generate knowledge, we would not be such a relevant actor and that is why we cannot stop developing our scientific capacities on the Antarctic continent”, he added.
“The summer Antarctic campaigns represent for Argentina the continuity of a State policy that sustains the uninterrupted presence of our country in its territory on that continent for 118 years”
Ortúzar considered that “Antarctica generates interest from many points of view, from scientific knowledge, from tourist activity, the interest in protecting it in its role against climate change, and of course the preservation and possible future exploitation of resources such as it happens now with the fishing”.
“In this context, Argentina faces the challenge of maintaining itself as a key actor in the Antarctic Treaty and for this it is key to sustain cutting-edge science, which is something for which it is re-equipping itself and proof of this is the creation of the oceanographic observatory aboard the icebreaker ‘Almirante Irizar’; also the modernization process of its Antarctic deployment to provide the bases with new technologies and greater equipment for Science”, the official completed.
