The deadly outbreak of the rare hantavirus aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship has highlighted the growing trend of tourism in Antarctica.
No tourists visited the icy southern continent until the 1960s and only 8,000 a year set foot there three decades ago. By last year, this had risen to 80,000, with a further 36,000 seeing it for themselves from ships docked in Antarctica’s spectacular bays.
This “unchecked tourism growth” risks “undermining the very environment that draws visitors”, said two academics from the University of Tasmania on The Conversation.
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Irreversible melting
Those first tourists set foot on Antarctica on 23 January 1966. The mission, with 57 guests, was intended to “inspire people to become stewards for the planet, by exposing them to one of its most awe-inspiring places”, said The Independent. But some now think the trip was a “mistake” because it began a process that is endangering the “fragile” environment.
Sixty years on, “tourism to the bottom of the world is soaring”, said The Associated Press. This is “driven in part by fears that the frozen landscapes of Antarctica may be irreversibly melting away because of climate change”.
“High costs” and the “time it can take” to travel there mean visitor numbers are “still small”, but they’re “growing so fast that scientists and environmentalists are sounding alarms”. The University of Tasmania academics estimated that the number of tourists could triple or quadruple to more than 400,000 a year by 2033-34.
The draw is clear: the experience of visiting Antarctica, with its whales, seals, penguins and icebergs, is “unique and not replicable anywhere else on the planet”, Claire Christian, from the environmental group Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, told AP. “It’s all really stunning and it makes a huge impression on people.”
‘Loved to death’
Between 2002 and 2020, nearly 150 billion tonnes of Antarctic ice melted each year, according to Nasa. Experts warn that more visitors will bring an increased risk of contamination, illness and other damage to the continent.
Tourists can threaten ecosystems by compacting soils, squashing fragile vegetation and bringing in non-native microbes and plant species. They can also disturb breeding colonies of birds and seals.
Each cruise ship visitor to Antarctica produces between 3.2 and 4.1 tonnes of carbon, and that doesn’t include their travel to the port of departure. This is comparable to the carbon emissions an average person produces in a year.
So the answer to Antarctica avoiding being “loved to death” may “lie in economics”. Some suggest a rule requiring visitors to pay a tourism tax, or a “cap-and-trade system” to limit the number of visitor permits for a fixed period.
The guidelines of the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators stipulate that only 100 people can set foot on the ice at any given time, and ships carrying more than 500 passengers are not allowed to dock.
Visitors are told to avoid touching the ground with anything but their feet. Some crews and passengers use vacuums, disinfectants and brushes to keep shoes and equipment free of bugs, feathers, seeds and microbe-carrying dirt, said AP.