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It gives me the willies when we have icebergs turn up around the New Zealand coastline and tourism operators go wild. Silly stuff happens and I’m worried someone’s going slip up without good knowledge. I’m always up for a laugh, but from experience people don’t know what they’re playing with. The worst will happen sometime, it’s an odds game and there’s no warning before things get serious. Icebergs seem beautiful and benign, but so did the mythical Sirens of Sirenum scopuli luring mariners with their song. Check this out….
Temporary (?) New Zealander shearing Shrek on fragile iceberg! ©NHNZ
Why do I worry? I’ve had a load of experience showing people icebergs and I’ve learnt and seen a few things that would make the hair on your neck stand up. I’ve had over a dozen trips and over 6 months of taking people to see icebergs in Antarctic and the Arctic and I’ve seen and photographed some unexpected things from the close up of the zodiac boats I drive around them. We’re trained to read them and work with respect.
Major misconception: Icebergs don’t melt away – they die, often violently. Bits break off, the balance changes, and they start rolling. When they roll, more bits break off and a chain reaction starts that can ultimately break a big berg into many small bits very quickly. The forces are unbelievable. Check out this photo I took in cold water off Antarctica of a ‘new’ iceberg (not a rotten weathered berg off NZ in warm water) collapsing without notice.
Click for full size showing diagram of collapse
Photo series of massive tabular iceberg collapsing
Lastly, if you’re not convinced, check out this amazing video (looks like Illulissat in Greenland to me):
Love them they’re spectacular, but realise that they’re even more fragile things in our warm waters. So, you won’t catch me shearing a sheep, or doing anything else with a sheep for that matter, on top of one. Amazing stuff.
See more iceberg photos here, or the images in the tabular iceberg collapse photo series here. Cheers, Rob
Ignorance is bliss! These guys have absolutely NO idea of how much danger they are in.
Hi Rob.
Thanks, your experience in these matters is great so thanks for lending support to concerns. Like you I shudder at these images of people needlessly dicing with serious danger. They could legitimately claim to have survived a near death experience!
Cheers, Rob