News in this edition:

23-01. Workshop to Focus on Cumulative Impact Issues.
23-02. IAATO/NSF Data Provides General Visitor Site Trends.
23-03. World Cruise Company Ceases Operation.
23-04. 'World Discoverer' Believed Refloated, Repairs Anticipated.
23-05. Ship Change To Aid Peregrine-Exodus Merger.
23-06. Turret Point Targetted For Station Site.
23-07. Coming Events Relevant to Non-Government Activities.

IN READING PLEASE NOTE: This newsletter is being produced in the interest of improved information sharing in the Antarctic community. Inclusion of information in it should not be taken to imply endorsement, by the publishers of ANAN News, of any company, program or associated activity that is listed, nor that the activity has necessarily completed all environmental impact assessments required under the legislation of the 'home' nation.

A three-day workshop which aims to examine issues relating to the potential cumulative impacts of Antarctic tourism, is to be held in the U.S. city of San Diego from 7-9 June. Organised by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO), the gathering is a response to the need to identify and understand more about the environmental impacts that can occur at locations visited by tourists over a long time period.

The workshop will bring together scientists and others who have first hand knowledge of tourist operations and the physical and biological features of sites commonly visited by tourists in the Antarctic Peninsula area. It is expected to make a valuable contribution to Antarctic environmental management, and many who work in that field anticipate that the discussions will lead to related gatherings under the wider umbrella of the Antarctic Treaty System.

The Antarctic Peninsula will be a focus of the meeting as 90 per cent of all Antarctic tourist visits occur there, and there are clusters of preferred visit sites within that region (ANAN-23/02 following). Visitor numbers to the Peninsula have trebled over the past decade, topping 9000 in 1998-99, while in 1999-2000, the busiest season on record for non-government activity (ANAN-17/01, 15 March 2000), it is anticipated that visitors exceeded 10000 for the first time.

Studies by researchers from a number of nations are being conducted which may provide data necessary for the detection of cumulative impacts of tourist activities. Most of the work conducted to date or underway has taken place around the Antarctic Peninsula and some has been reported previously in this newsletter (ANAN-6/06, 13 October 1999, ANAN-8/10, 10 November 1999 and ANAN-10/05, 8 December 1999). There is no clear agreement however that these studies will provide all the scientific information needed, nor is it not certain what additional work and time might be necessary to answer the type of questions for site management involved.

Following invitations from the organisers, some thirty people from Australia, Canada, Chile, the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), the U.K. and the U.S. are expected to gather in San Diego. Those taking part include researchers in the field of wildlife ecology, disease transfer, terrestrial biology, and environmental chemistry, representatives from environmental groups, members of the tourism industry, and personnel from government agencies who work in such areas as environmental management, research program development and coordination, and policy formulation. While numbers have been limited, the organisers believe that at this stage of the process a small focussed group is likely to make better progress than a larger one.

Despite its Antarctic Peninsula focus, the findings may be applicable to sites of human visitation right around the continent, and are likely to be valuable for use in assessing governmental as well as or non-governmental activity.

[ANAN-23/01]

Data collected by tour operators affiliated with the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) and collated annually by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) over the past ten years, are providing important information on the location and development over time of site visits by ship-borne tourists in coastal Antarctica.

The IAATO/NSF initiative has identified over 150 locations in the Antarctic Peninsula that have been used for tourists landings since 1990. Around thirty of these have been particularly favoured because they either offer a range of wildlife and other attractive features in the one location, are clustered close to other places of similar merit only a few hours ship travel away, or are generally better sheltered from open ocean and weather effects which can inhibit landing operations for days at a time.

Clusters of favoured sites in the Peninsula region occur around the South Shetland Islands, the general region of the southern Gerlache and Bismark Straits, and increasingly around the north-eastern tip of the Peninsula. Most of the sites are not large and at several visitor numbers are now believed to exceed 6000 during the three-month summer season, while at some others numbers are well above 2000 (ANAN-6/07, 13 October 1999).

Information on the features found at many of these sites has been published in a number of formats and are readily available (ANAN-10/05, 8 December 1999, ANAN-13/03, 19 January 2000 and ANAN-19/11, 12 April 2000), while more detailed data on them has been collected by a range of research initiatives (ANAN-23/01 proceeding). There is a growing tendency however for visitors to be provided with the opportunity to undertake activities well beyond the areas for which site information has been collated.

While data are collected by IAATO members for ship visits, there is currently no accurate collation available on the locations visited by smaller non-government expeditions which primarily use yachts, or on the increasing numbers of similar operations carried out in the interior of Antarctica.

Data on ship-based tourism visits to a range of locations which have been collected by IAATO members and collated by the NSF are available on line at the IAATO Web Site.

[ANAN-23/02]

The World Cruise Company (WCC), which carried close to 1700 passengers to the Antarctic Peninsula in the 1999-2000 season in two 400 plus capacity vessels (ANAN-17/07, 15 March 2000), and who had planned a further 'large ship' voyage there next austral summer, ceased operations in late May. While few details of WCC's failure are available publicly, the demise of the company means that only one large tourist vessel, the ice strengthened 'Marco Polo', is known to be planning to conduct tour operations in Antarctica next season (ANAN-13/02, 19 January 2000 and ANAN-19/02, 12 April 2000).

The WCC was established in late 1997 and operated in Antarctica for the first time last austral summer. It was a sister company to Marine Expeditions (MEI) who for many years has conducted Antarctic tour operations with smaller, expedition-type, vessels. MEI is owned by the same principles as WCC and the two companies had shared office space and some resources in the one building in Toronto, Canada. MEI are continuing to operate however and plan a range of tourist operations in the Antarctic Peninsula region in 2000-01, although one of the three ships they originally planned to use has recently been chartered by another company (ANAN-23/05 following).

WCC chartered the ships 'Ocean Explorer I' and 'Aegean I' for round-the-world operations last year. During their world journeys each ship made two voyages to the South Shetland Islands area from South America in a two-week period around New Year 2000 (ANAN-11/03, 22 December 1999). Between them they spent a total of six days in the South Shetlands area, some 1300 people making shore visits during three landings at two separate locations. 'Ocean Explorer' was also involved in a transfer of passengers between it and three smaller MEI ships at Deception Island around New Year (ANAN-17/05, 15 March 2000).

Reports indicate that 'Ocean Explorer I', which had been expected to conduct three back-to-back world cruises, was for reasons that are unclear taken out of service after only one circumnavigation and was laid up in Greece. The vessel 'Riviera' replaced it for the second cruise, however WCC ceased operation when the ship was in Tahiti in the South Pacific. Attempts are said to be underway to organise a program of travel credits and cash refunds to compensate the passengers involved.

Closure of the WCC comes at a time another Canadian company, Karlsen Shipping of Halifax, Nova Scotia, is preparing to refurbish a former Swedish vessel in preparation for Antarctic tour operations by a Norwegian group which are scheduled to start in the 2001-02 austral summer (ANAN-22/01, 24 May 2000).

[ANAN-23/03]

Reports from the Solomon Islands indicate that Society Expeditions' vessel 'World Discoverer' was refloated sometime in the past few days following five weeks spent on a beach after its encounter with an uncharted reef on 29 April (ANAN-21/04, 10 May 2000). The reports, which Society's U.S. office believes are correct but could not confirm, also indicate that the vessel is now heading for dry dock where repairs to hull damage are expected to be made.

No information is available about the extent of hull damage suffered by the vessel or how long repairs are expected to take. Prior to the incident 'World Discoverer' had been scheduled to undergo its annual dry dock in a Japanese shipyard, where apart from standard maintenance work, two new suites were to be added to the Boat Deck and an upgraded fire protection system installed throughout the vessel. Society said soon after the grounding that any repairs needed would be performed during the dry docking in Japan, but it is not known if the ship is actually heading for there.

While voyages schedule by Society in other parts of the world over the next few months will be affected, the company expects next season's Antarctic operations with 'World Discoverer' to be conducted as planned. Operations announced by Society last year for the 2000-01 austral summer call for the ship to make seven tourist voyages to the Antarctic Peninsula and South Atlantic region between early December and the end of February.

[ANAN-23/04]

Australian tour company Peregrine Adventures, which conducted its own Antarctic tour operations for the first time last austral summer, has announced a full equity merger with UK-based Exodus Travel. The two companies believe this move will position them well in the expanding, world-wide, adventure tourism market, and the charter of a larger vessel shortly after the merger was announced will enable the new group to consolidate its Antarctic tour activities over the next few years.

The combined annual turnover of Peregrine and Exodus in all areas is put by the companies at around $US40M, and Peregrine says that its total company sales have grown around 25 per cent annually in recent years. While each partner offered a range of complimentary tour products in many parts of the world, they say that the merger will provide each entity with direct access to a substantial amount of 'new product'. Exodus has for example a well-established program in Europe, while Peregrine is particularly experienced in South East Asia, and after a number of years of planning, now has its own Antarctic tour operation.

Shortly after the Peregrine-Exodus merger was announced, negotiations were completed for the charter of the vessel 'Akademic Ioffe' commencing in 2000-01. Peregrine had used the smaller, 52 berth, 'Akademic Boris Petrov' for nine voyages to the Antarctic Peninsula region in 1999-2000, and while it had an option to utilise 'Petrov' again and was happy with it's performance, when 'Ioffe' became available the decision was taken to opt for it due to its larger passenger capacity. The move provides the new grouping with the opportunity to increase its share of the Antarctic tour market, even though passenger numbers on a single voyage are to be limited to 100, sixteen less than the ship's maximum capacity.

'Ioffe' is no stranger to the Antarctic Peninsula region having been used by several companies to conduct tour operations there since the early 1990s. Marine Expeditions of Canada, which has chartered the ship for the past five seasons, had anticipated utilising 'Ioffe' again, its brochure for 2000-01 released last January indicating that the ship would undertake nine or ten Peninsula voyages under its banner (ANAN-17/05, 15 March 2000).

Peregrine-Exodus plans call for 'Ioffe' to conduct the same eleven voyages Peregrine featured in its original 2000-01 brochure for 'Petrov'. That brochure is now being reprinted. Ten of the voyages are to the Antarctic Peninsula, and the eleventh also includes a visit to islands in the Scotia Arc. A twelfth voyage at the end of the season is expected to visit the latter area a second time on its redelivery voyage to Europe in March 2001. While the combined passenger capacity of these voyages exceeds 1000 the company does not anticipate approaching that figure for several seasons.

While Peregrine-Exodus could increase its share of the overall Antarctic tourism market over the next few years as a result of acquiring 'Ioffe', the move does not signal an overall increase in tourism numbers. Preliminary indications are that the number of tourist vessels that will operate in Antarctica next season is likely to fall slightly on that for 1999-2000 (ANAN-12/01, 5 January 2000 and ANAN-17/01, 15 March 2000), and that overall those involved will have less capacity. While total tourist visitor numbers for the 1999-2000 season are not yet available, the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) has been predicting for several years that around 14000 passengers would be involved. A similar number was projected by IAATO for 2000-01 and current ship usage trends tend at this stage to support that assessment.

[ANAN-23/05]

Reports from Prague last week say that the Czech Republic is proposing to establish a research station at Turret Point on King George Island in the South Shetlands sometime around 2003-04. Turrett Point is a relatively small ice free area which lies on the south-eastern shore of King George Island and is a location that has been visited regularly by tourists in the last half decade.

IAATO/NSF statistics (ANAN-23/02 proceeding) indicate that Turrett Point and adjacent Penguin Island have been visited by between 1200 and 2300 people from tourist vessels in recent seasons, the number of ship visits varying between 15 and 27 in a season. The area attracts visitors as tens of thousands of penguins, three species of birds, and several species of seals and found there during summer.

While Czech researchers have worked in the Antarctic with a number of national programs over the past decade, the station will be the first such facility established by the country in the region. The $US1M station is said to be being designed around the use of solar and wind energy, and the small budget suggests that it will be limited in scope and may not be staffed year-round, particularly in the first years of operation. No details of planned station operations, general support arrangements, or research program activity proposed, are currently available. King George Island is currently the site of eleven national program stations.

The former state of Czechoslovakia became a Non-Consultative Party to the Antarctic Treaty in June 1962. The now separate Czech and Slovak Republics each inherited Czechoslovakia's obligations under the Treaty. Under the Madrid Protocol an environmental impact assessment is required prior to establishment of the new station.

[ANAN-23/06]

7-9 June 2000 (San Diego, United States).
Workshop on the Cumulative Environmental Impacts of Tourism.

23 June 2000 (Christchurch, New Zealand).
Workshop on Tourism in the Ross Sea Region.
Contact: v.allan@antarcticanz.govt.nz (Vivienne Allan)

25-28 June 2000 (Hobart, Australia)
IAATO year 2000 annual meeting.
Contact: iaato@iaato.org (Denise Landau)

9-15 July 2000 (Tokyo, Japan)
COMNAP (including the sub-committee on Tourism and Non-Government Operations).
Contact: jsayers@comnap.aq (Jack Sayers)

4-6 October 2000 (Boulder, United States)
American Polar Society Bi-Annual Meeting.
Contact: mckie@cires.colarado.edu (Julie McKie)

5 February 2001 (King George Island, Antarctica)
Fourth Antarctic Marathon and Half Marathon.
Contact: marathon@shore.net (Thom Gilligan)

[ANAN-23/07]

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