The Impact of Visitors
Antarctica
doesn't have any "residents" in that everyone who goes is a visitor for a short
time. There are two groups of visitors who can have an impact on Antarctica, tourists
and those who go as part of a national Antarctic programme.
In terms of numbers, tourists greatly outnumber
national programme personnel 46,069 as against 4,000 in the 2007/2008 season for
instance (tourist numbers were up 14% on the previous year leading to
calls to limit the number of tourists allowed to go).
The national programme personnel clock up far more person-days however, and impacts
are difficult to compare directly.
While tourists may only only spend a relatively small
time on landings, it is by its nature relatively "high-impact" time - compared to
a scientist or electrician say who probably spend most of their time on a permanent
or semi-permanent base. Tourists also, by their nature will want to visit the most
picturesque and wildlife rich areas of Antarctica, and they tend to do so in numbers
far greater than the entire compliment of many Antarctic bases.
There is also the fact that those national programmes
that are supplied by ship (as the majority are) have relatively few visits of those
ships, whereas in the season, the great majority of all shipping activity in Antarctica
is of tour ships. There have been accidents with ships being grounded on uncharted
rocks and there have been oil-spills. With the best safe-guards in the world (and
it has to be said that marine regulations for Antarctic ships, both statuary and
self-imposed are as good as they get) the more ships there are, the more accidents
there will be.
Tourism in Antarctica is at present self-regulated
by the
International Association of Antarctic
Tour Operators (IAATO). This is an organization that applies strict guidelines
to its member tour operators and ships. Such guidelines limit the size of the ships
that can cruise Antarctic waters and also how many people can be landed at sites
around Antarctica. So far IAATO is perceived as being successful in its aims and
in regulation for Antarctic protection - though there are always those who would
have no tourism at all.
The real potential
threat from tourists is from non IAATO member ships and tour operators who run cruises
with larger ships and greater numbers of people landing. This has not happened yet
to any significant degree, but
if it does, at present, there is little or nothing that could be done.
Another threat
comes from smaller expeditions that are becoming increasingly common by individuals
and small parties. Antarctica requires careful planning and a series of fail-safe
rescue procedures if anyone gets into difficulty. These smaller expeditions often
fail to do this adequately and resort to "humanitarian" requests for aid from shipping
or nearby national bases when they get into
difficulty. In recent years for example
a small helicopter crashed into the sea off the Antarctic peninsula requiring rescue
and an attempt to fly across Antarctica via the pole in a small aircraft ended by
the aircraft crashing and the pilot being rescued by nearby base personnel.
There is no
guarantee that derelict or crashed vehicles left by private expeditioners will be
removed from Antarctica as they should be.
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