Thousands of miles from home and -75C cold: Life is tough in Antarctica even before death threats from scientists

Independent

18-03-2025

Around 2,500 miles from home and facing increasingly colder and darker conditions, life in an Antarctic research station is tough at the best of times.
But at South Africa's Sanae IV in Vesleskarvet scientists have faced an extra challenge - alleged death threats from a colleague.
'It is imperative that immediate action is taken to ensure my safety and the safety of all employees,' said an email sent home by one of the station's staff. The alleged aggressor has now apologised to their victim, according to the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) who said they had'shown remorse'.
The department has now begun the hard task of restoring relationships in the nine-person team who must continue working together through the rest of Antarctica's harsh winter. Such tensions between colleagues add what are already extreme conditions.
Around 10,000 scientists and support staff work for 18 countries on stations around the continent, and tourists arrive in droves, but temperatures still rarely climb far above zero.
In winter, which is fast approaching, temperatures will plummet to between -10C and -30C, and can reach as low as -75C.
Antarctic expert and retired scientist Dr John Dudeney spent two consecutive winters in Antarctica early in his career, and told The Independent it takes resilience to live and work on the isolated continent.
'It's a very, very extreme experience, there's no doubt about that,' he said.
Over winter the number of staff working in Antarctica will dwindle to about 1,000 scientists and support workers, who, outnumbered by penguins 5,000 to one, must endure long stretches without any sunlight at all depending on where they are stationed. At the South Pole, there is complete darkness for several months over winter.
Dr Dudeney, whose career in Antarctic matters spanned nearly six decades, said the weather wasn't the biggest problem - even though there would be times when it would be difficult to go outside.
'There is this problem of sensory deprivation,' he said. 'Quite often, if you look out of a window all you'll see is snow driving past, and if the sun is shining or the moon is bright, then you'll just see a flat featureless snow plane.'
Preparing to start a posting - and to rejoin normal life - takes serious preparation, to ensure people are physically and mentally prepared for the particular hardships of life in Antarctica.
Teams undergo psychometric testing beforehand, and the South African DFFE said the alleged perpetrator has undergone a further psychological exam.
Dr Dudeney, who was a base commander at Farady base in 1968, said normal relations could be challenging in Antarctic teams, and he was always conscious of watching his own behaviour and having the good of the team in mind.
'The team forms or it doesn't, and it forms as a sometimes what we call a storming team, a really good team that works really well together. Sometimes it fragments and becomes more than one team that works against each other. The key is to try and make a team that works together,' he said.
Handling a difficult individual was also tricky, Dr Dudeney said.
'You don't have any sanctions at all really -if you have a difficult individual, you can sack them, but then what do you do? They've still got to be there, and they still need to pull their weight,' he said.
Antarctica is one of the most remote places to work, besides the International Space Station: the British stations are more than 8,700 miles from the UK.
The difficulties accessing Antarctica at particular times of year plus the sheer distance from most major cities mean workers stay for months at a time, and Dr Dudeney said sending in backup support in winter was still a difficult undertaking.
'You've got to know what the balance of risks is,' he said. 'If you're trying to extract somebody, for instance, in the middle of winter, then there has to be a careful assessment of the risk you're taking compared with the risk of taking no action.'