Environmental woes of Antarctica can be addressed today

This tourist season in Antarctica, hardy types will still venture to this frozen land even with its unfriendly snow, ice, isolation, high winds and raging seas, and about the 11,200 tourists gearing for the trip shall arrive from cruise ship travel while only 130 of them will come from other transportation. Such a total may only be 400 people more than the number of visitors last season, specifically from mid November through February, it was still able to jump 70 percent higher than the previous 6,585 seasons that Antarctica opened itself to tourists. Antarctica's many watchers are growing worried towards its environment and warned that Antarctic visitors could grow by the thousands annually.

Antarctic voyagers must be ready to spend around $20,000 per person just one person, as an average two week cruise amounts to $6,000 to $7,000 and then he will still have to shell out some more for his Ushuaia Argentina round trip ticket as the place known as Tierra del Fuego is the preferred place of origination 90 percent of the yearly travelers. Despite Antarctica appearing to be insulated from the effects caused by the influx of tourists due to the high price of going there along with the hard-to-contend-with climate and geography, most of today's environmental experts see this to cause lasting ecological disaster.

The head man behind the Antarctic Project states that mesmerizing Antarctica should be seen by many people but then capping the influx of tourists each year, as well as prohibiting sites to be exploited anew should be prioritized. Such is the secretariat for more than 200 conservation organizations within 40 various nations and is a Washington based project. There is still harm in the fact that people heading to Antarctica come back committed to its conservation as this is a very fragile land and there can sometimes be too many visitors flooding in most of who are getting to love it too much.

A six thousand limit of yearly visitors is being pushed by a director, as there are tons of voyagers going to the same few places on the 800 mile long Antarctic Peninsula, which is home to the biggest concentration of animals like penguins, birds and seals. But tourist groups going over 100 people is a rarity, especially those that set foot on land. Thanks to the visitors, animals barely get to rest or feed themselves or their offspring.

Science doesn't yet know whether this will have long term impact she added. Tourists tinkering with the plants and not disposing garbage properly is two of Antarctica's growing woes. This is why large and experienced staffs are there to insure when visitors go ashore, they have minimal impact and on top of that, this explains why tour operators adhere to such guidelines as stated by the system espoused by the Antarctic Treaty. The Antarctic Treaty of 1959, ratified after the signature of 43 different countries, on top of the environmental protocol signed last January 14, 1998 ended the oil explorations and mining operations as well as ventured into environmental safeguards from fishing limits up to Antarctic cruises on various seasons.

The New York based tour association group's members voluntarily adopted the 100 person limit when it comes to shore visits, where zodiacs are employed, specifically motorized rubber boats. Of the 15 vessels in Antarctica this season, nine fly Russian flags. Following the Soviet Union's break up, many tour operators saw a golden opportunity, with the small ships made available for their disposal. Several ships, one of which is an icebreaker, all with very tough hulls to go against the tough ice can carry around 40 to 80 people. But it is obvious that the environmental problems of the frozen continent makes many so concerned. It's possible that in the future, we'll look back and say, no problem, we worried about it needlessly. Until the day science sheds light on these questions, we will have to limit our travels to Antarctica for this continent's sake.