The Earth's Last Frontier Now Facing Huge Environmental Concerns

Hardy types will still venture to Antarctica despite its unfriendly ice

, snow, isolation, high winds and raging seas and around 11,200 tourists will be surging in, with all except for a hundred and thirty of them this tourist season, coming in via cruise ships. This total is still seventy percent higher than the 6,585 seasons before it even as this is only 400 times more visitors than last year's tourist season, slated from mid November up until February. Most of those watching over Antarctica are growing concerned about the environment of the continent and they warn that a thousand more people can come to Antarctica each year.

For cruising the White Continent, a single individual will have to pay around $20,000 and on the average, a 14 day cruise would cost him about $6,000 to $7,000 but then the traveler will have to cover his round trip air fare as he will need to come from the area where 90 percent of trips leave, in Tierra del Fuego found in Ushuaia, Argentina. Despite the fact that Antarctica appears to be indestructible especially with the cost of venturing there as well as the impossible climate and geographic characteristics, the fact is that its ecosystem may soon begin to suffer greatly from the throng of travelers.

The man behind the Antarctic Project notes that even as he wants all the world to see the Antarctic region's breathtaking scenery, capping tourists coming in and limiting new sites explorations is a must. Forty various countries containing 200 or more environmental teams use this as their secretariat for the Washington based initiative. Despite the fact that most visitors swear to uphold conservation efforts in Antarctica, it is still not good to have so many of them coming in all the time, and falling too much for this fragile continent.

A concern greatly nagging this director is the great number of tourists heading to the exact same areas along the 800 mile Antarctic Peninsula, which is home to the most formidable concentration of penguins, seals and birds so he is keen on the six thousand voyager limit per year. It is not usual for tour groups exceeding 100 visitors at one specific occasion It is so bad that animals get disrupted when there are visitors for they cannot get food for themselves or for their young and they are also not able to rest.

Without batting an eyelash, she reveals that science is unable to see if this shall venture into a long term impact. Growing fears thrive in the probability that garbage will be left behind by tourists and that they will touch the plants. That's why when visitors go ashore, there are large and experienced staffs to insure they have minimal impact and why the tour operators adhere to the guidelines, for visitors adopted by the Antarctic Treaty System. With the series of agreements namely the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, since signed by 43 different countries, along with an environmental protocol that since January 14, 1998 has been promulgated, has put a stop to oil drilling and mining, and also created environmental safeguards, like fishing limits and of course, Antarctic cruises on certain occasions.

The tour association members based in New York voluntarily took the 100 person limit for shore tours where they employ zodiacs which are motorized boats made of rubber. Out of 15 air crafts this season, nine shall fly with the flags of Russia. The Soviet Union disbandment saw several small sea vessels seized by tour operators for their advantage. Those ships, including an icebreaker and several other vessels whose hulls were hardened against ice, carry from 40 to 80 passengers. But it is obvious that the environmental problems of the frozen continent makes many so concerned. In the future, we would look back and say that our worries were nothing at all, and just heave a sigh of relief. But now that science is far from coming up with a good answer, let us all contribute by limiting our travels to the continent know as the Earth's final frontier.

by: tinabarney

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