MARINE MAMMAL COMMISSION - Annual Report for 1995 



Tourism and other non-governmental activities can 

 interfere with scientific research and, like other 

 activities, can have adverse environmental impacts. 

 The Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties have recog- 

 nized these possibilities and adopted a number of 

 measures to govern tourism and non-governmental 

 activities, as well as governmental activities, in the 

 Antarctic. As noted in the Commission's previous 

 annual report, the XVIIIth Antarctic Treaty Consulta- 

 tive Meeting developed and adopted a recommenda- 

 tion calling on the treaty parties to implement agreed 

 "Guidance for Visitors to the Antarctic" and "Guid- 

 ance for Those Organizing and Conducting Tourism 

 and Non-Governmental Activities in the Antarctic. " 

 As also noted in its previous annual report, the 

 Commission contracted in 1994 with a person familiar 

 with the Antarctic tourist industry to design and carry 

 out a field test to determine how best to ensure that 

 visitors are aware of and comply with the guidelines. 



Available information and monitoring programs 

 generally are insufficient to predict or detect the 

 effects of tourists expeditions or other activities in the 

 Antarctic. To determine how this problem might best 

 be overcome, the National Science Foundation provid- 

 ed funds in 1994 for a study to (1) characterize the 

 physical and biological features of representative sites 

 in the Antarctic peninsula typically visited by tourist 

 expeditions, and (2) determine whether periodic visits 

 by trained observers aboard tour ships can effectively 

 monitor features that could be affected by visitors. 



Preliminary reports from both the Commission 

 and NSF-sponsored studies were provided to the 

 XlXth Consultative Meeting. In addition, New 

 Zealand, Argentina, Chile, and the United Kingdom 

 jointly tabled a paper proposing adoption of standard 

 formats for pre- and post-trip reporting of tourist 

 operations in Antarctica. Although it was agreed that 

 standardized reporting would be desirable, it was not 

 clear how the data required in the proposed reporting 

 forms would be used, whether all the data proposed to 

 be required would be useful, or whether the proposed 

 reporting form would actually facilitate compilation 

 and analysis of data required to effectively assess and 

 monitor the impacts of tourism on the Antarctic 

 environment. The meeting identified the basic infor- 

 mation that should be provided to the relevant national 

 authorities (the National Science Foundation in the 



United States) before and after tourists and other non- 

 governmental expeditions to Antarctica. The meeting 

 agreed that development and adoption of possible 

 standard reporting forms should be considered further 

 at the next consultative meeting. 



During the discussion of tourist-related issues, it 

 was noted that the U.S. National Science Foundation 

 annually holds meetings of Antarctic tour operators 

 with U.S. connections to ensure that they are aware of 

 the provisions of the Antarctic Treaty and related 

 agreements and legislation regarding tourism in 

 Antarctica. The National Science Foundation was 

 asked and agreed to explore ways whereby its annual 

 meetings with tour operators might be broadened to 

 help other treaty parties meet their responsibilities 

 regarding tourism. In response, the foundation invited 

 representatives of other treaty parties to attend its 

 1995 meeting with Antarctic tour operators. 



Representatives of several treaty parties, as well as 

 representatives of individual tour operators and the 

 International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators, 

 attended the 13 July 1995 meeting. A Marine Mam- 

 mal Commission representative attended the meeting 

 and provided a brief overview of the tourism-related 

 issues addressed by the XlXth Consultative Meeting. 



Both the Commission and the National Science 

 Foundation representatives encouraged the members 

 of the International Association of Antarctic Tour 

 Operators to review the tourism-related papers that 

 had been submitted for consideration at the XlXth 

 Consultative Meeting and to prepare and present a 

 paper at the next consultative meeting describing the 

 types of data that tour operators believe necessary to 

 effectively assess, monitor, and minimize the impacts 

 of tourism on the Antarctic environment and in what 

 form those data would be most useful. They also 

 suggested that tour operators prepare and table a paper 

 describing how their personnel are trained and how 

 they supervise tourists while they are ashore visiting 

 bird and seal colonies, research stations, and other 

 tourist sites in the Antarctic. 



Inspections Under the Antarctic Treaty — 



Article 7 of the Antarctic Treaty provides that all 

 areas of Antarctica, including all stations, installa- 

 tions, and equipment within those areas and all ships 



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