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ANTARCTICA: THE LAST UNSPOILED
WILDERNESS NO MORE
24.03.2013
By Tourism-Review
Antarctica has hosted a century of expeditions and
exploration, from Roald Amundsen to modern races to the
South Pole. These visits have been popularized in books
and movies. Long the purview of scientists and
adventurers, Antarctica is seeing a new type of visitor
– the adventure tourist.
Tourism to Antarctica arguably started in the 1970s.
When a New Zealand airplane filled with tourists crashed
into Mt. Erebus and all 257 people on board were killed.
Tourism was halted for nearly a decade.
In the 1980s, about 2,000 visitors a year arrived in
Antarctica. A decade ago, most tourists to Antarctica
comprised of retirees resting on cruise ship decks,
watching the glaciers, penguins and occasional whale.
They rarely set foot on land. The few who did go on land
took pictures of the ice fields and penguins.
They visited historic sites like old whaling stations or
research stations. McMurdo Station is the largest
settlement on the continent. It has been built to handle
up to 1,200 people. In contrast, New Zealand's Scott
Base only sleeps 90 people. They are scientific research
stations, but both sites host tourists and have gift
shops.
Tourism dropped in the years since the 2007 financial
market collapse, when the number of tourists peaked at
46,000. The number bottomed out at about 27,000
visitors. Cruise ships still pass through like the two
cruise ships that regularly visit Ross Island. About
9,900 visitors travelled through Antarctic waters last
year.
However, tourism has rebounded. Furthermore, the nature
of the tourism has changed. Tourists are coming onto
shore en masse. Flights over Antarctica resumed in the
1990s. And in a growing number of ventures, tourists are
scuba diving through the pristine waters and under ice,
driving across glaciers and even sky diving and
paragliding. You can now go water skiing off Antarctica
or take two and three person submarines into the frigid
waters. The submarines are owned by Henry Cookson
Adventures. However, most tourists stay on the 2% of the
continent that is ice free.
International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators
estimates that when the November through March tourism
season ends, about 35,000 people would have visited
Antarctica. Most tourists visit during the 17 week long
summer when the sun never sets. Even more visitors are
expected next year. In contrast, there are only 4,400
researchers stationed at the 39 different research
facilities scattered across Antarctica.
Anywhere else in the world, so few visitors would be
described as a slow venue. On a place previously
untouched by humans, every visitor has a profound impact
on the otherwise unspoiled continent. Exotic species
have become a problem to ecosystems as diverse as the
coral reefs of the Caribbean to the rain forests of
Hawaii.
There are concerns that tourists could bring diseases or
seeds that could disrupt the fragile Antarctic
ecosystem. Then there are endless horror stories of
groups coming closer to animals than rules allow. Tim
Jarvis, an adventurer who recreated Ernest Shackleton's
journey, filed complex environmental impact statements
before making his journey. He is one of the few
adventurers to take such care before starting out on his
trip.
While the fifty countries that have signed onto the
Antarctic Treaty have decided to set rules to manage
tourism, only two rules have been agreed upon to date.
And as is often the case with international treaties,
neither rule is actively enforced.
Tourism has always had risks. Three skydivers above the
South Pole station died in 1997. Hypoxia is the most
likely cause of their deaths. However, hypoxia also
creates risks for all visitors to the ice shelf.
The South Pole is 9,300 feet above sea level, as high as
many mountains. Antarctica is dry, cold and windy. There
are many fatalities due to accidents caused by white out
conditions. The last known fatalities were in 2011, when
a yacht carrying three people disappeared during a
squall. These risks are magnified in a land that lacks
Emergency Rooms and ready evacuation to intensive care.
A 2004 agreement to require tourism operations to have
sufficient insurance to pay for rescue operations has
only been ratified by 11 nations. There have been
deaths. A Japanese crewman died in a shipboard fire in
2007. Searchers are often delayed until October to be
able to recover the dead, such as three Canadians who
died in January.
Human visitors also introduce risks to the wilderness
itself. Every ship is a possible oil spill. In light of
this hazard, the UN prohibited the use of heavy fuel oil
near Antarctica. This is one of the two hard rules in
Antarctica. Unfortunately, many tour ships dump bilge
water into the ocean. Plane crashes cause both toxic
chemical spills and a form of litter. This is in
addition to the noise pollution ships, vehicles and even
aircraft bring, affecting everything from the penguins
to the whales.
There is a proposal to limit ships to a maximum of 500
tourists, but only Japan and Uruguay support it. The
Polar Code would require all ships in the Antarctic to
be strong enough to withstand sea ice, but this standard
probably won't go into force until 2014.
The beauty of Antarctica is its rugged and pristine
vistas, wildlife and untamed and barely charted seas. It
is not surprising that so many want to see it
themselves. Yet we must do more to protect the land so
that it remains so, or Antarctica as the last unspoiled
wilderness will be no more.
This journey encompasses the Arctic and sub-Arctic landscapes from
Greenland to northern Quebec, Labrador’s Torngat Mountains and
coastal Newfoundland. CC.. Photos from
ATA 21st Congress Guide. Images by Namibia Tourist
Office. Namibia's
Kalahari Desert Bushmen
Given
Aladdin's 3 wishes, I would restore Emperor Haile Sellasie's
'Lion of Judah' railway engine, hook it up to the prized set
of French and British coaches, and operate luxury excursion
tours on the Franco-Ethiopian Railway. Built in the 1930s,
the 482 mile line stretches from Addis Ababa, via Nazaret,
the Rift Valley and Dire Dawa, to Djibouti, a French
protectorate on the Gulf of Aden. In a 5-minute BBC
interview, hoping my message would cause a spark, I said,
"Think of the much needed income such a tour would generate
for the Ethiopian economy." I've followed the last decade's
amazing railway renaissance.(continued) Adventure Section
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Wonz
-Dar Expeditions,
Ethiopia |
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