{"id":14550,"date":"2010-08-10T22:27:00","date_gmt":"2010-08-10T22:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/heritage-expeditions-announce-new-voyages-2\/"},"modified":"2010-08-10T22:27:00","modified_gmt":"2010-08-10T22:27:00","slug":"heritage-expeditions-announce-new-voyages-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/2010\/08\/heritage-expeditions-announce-new-voyages-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Heritage Expeditions Announce New Voyages"},"content":{"rendered":"
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One of Heritage Expeditions<\/a> highlighted new 2011 Russia voyages we will release this month at the UK\u2019s premier Birdfair is our ‘Bering’s Wake: In search of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper’ in partnership with BirdLife International.<\/p>\n

This expedition is as unique as the First Kamchatka Expedition of 1725 \u2013 1730, which was led by Danish explorer Commander Vitus Bering. Like his, our expedition will depart from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, sailing \u2018north by north east\u2019 to discover wildlife and a wilderness that few people have seen or experienced. It is a land of extremes and myriad environments including snow-capped active volcanoes, geothermal regions, vast forests, extensive tundra, uninhabited islands and rich oceans. Every day we will search for the best wildlife experiences, and there will be many, but we want to find one bird in particular – the extremely rare Spoon-billed Sandpiper (Eurynorhynchus pygmeus). This bird is classified as \u2018critically endangered\u2019 and its only known breeding ground is in northern Kamchatka and Chukotka \u2013 the area that we will be visiting. Recent field studies suggest that the global population is much lower than previously thought, possibly fewer than 320 breeding pairs and declining. Joining us on this expedition will be members of BirdLife International\u2019s Spoon-billed Sandpiper Recovery Team.<\/p>\n

Many of our past guests have asked “When will Rodney Russ and crew sail an expedition to the South Indian Ocean again?”, well its been 10 years in the waiting but the answer is Mid-November 2012.<\/p>\n

The ‘Remote Islands of the South Indian Ocean’ expedition is possibly one of the last true expedition cruises left on the globe. Very, very few expeditions ever venture into these latitudes. It is a vast expanse of ocean broken by only five relatively small islands, Crozet, Heard, Kerguelen, St Paul and Amsterdam. All of the islands except Heard are French territories, their claim dating to the expeditions of Yves Joseph de Kerguelen-Tremarec. Heard Island is Australian territory, it is Australia\u2019s only active volcano and Big Ben the mountain that dominates the island is Australia\u2019s highest peak. The legacy of whaling and sealing enterprises can be seen in the form of introduced plants and animals, with some islands more modified than others. Probably due to its geographical position, south of the Antarctic convergence, Heard Island escaped the ravages of these introductions and is the most pristine. The French maintain scientific bases on Crozet, Kergulen and Amsterdam Islands. All of these islands are home to thousands of seabirds and marine mammals. The highlights include the rare Amsterdam (Wandering) Albatross, the huge colonies of Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross, and Mosley\u2019s Rockhopper Penguin. Our previous expedition to the South Indian Ocean was in November 2002 and it was a huge success with landings at all of the Islands, we look forward to a similar voyage of exploration ten years on.<\/p>\n

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