Three icebreaking ships are racing toward Antarctica to rescue a Russian vessel that became stranded in remote sea ice on Christmas morning.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority said it received a distress call Wednesday morning from the MK Akademik Shokalskiy, which has 48 passengers on board and 20 crew members, according to The Guardian.
A spokeswoman from the agency said Wednesday that the icebreakers would take at least two days to reach the ship, but “the vessel isn’t in any immediate danger.”
The Akademik Shokalskiy is currently near Stillwell Island, about 1,500 nautical miles south of Hobart, Tasmania.
The ship left New Zealand in early December on the Spirit of Mawson voyage, which is following in the footsteps of Douglas Mawson, the leader of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911. Half its passengers are tourists who are helping scientists on board with experiments, The Guardian reports.
“We're making the best possible use of our unscheduled stop to take extra measurements in the area and build on our scientific work program,” said climate scientist Chris Turney of the University of New South Wales.
