Conservation in the Antarctic

1977 ◽  
Vol 279 (963) ◽  
pp. 97-104 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Southern Ocean ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Falkland Islands ◽  
Voluntary Agreement ◽  
South Georgia ◽  
Tristan Da Cunha ◽  
Conservation Measures ◽  
Antarctic Seals ◽  
Antarctic Treaty ◽  
The Antarctic

Formidable legal and administrative complexities arise from conflicting claims to jurisdiction and the continued absence of generally recognized sovereignty over much of the region. Existing conservation measures fall into three groups: elaborate laws made by governments claiming Antarctic territories, more restricted laws, and simple instructions for particular expeditions. The Antarctic Treaty, 1959, made it possible to begin coordinating all these separate instruments. No claimed jurisdiction has been surrendered or recognized: each government has started to harmonize its own control measures with the ‘Agreed Measures for the Conservation of Antarctic Fauna and Flora’, 1964. This scheme applied only to land areas and has since been evolving in the light of experience. Although not yet formally approved by all the governments concerned, it is working effectively by voluntary agreement. Different approaches are necessary for conservation of Southern Ocean resources, especially krill. A start has been made with the ‘ Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals’, 1972. There are many outstanding problems: all require effective cooperation between scientific and legal advisers, diplomats and politicians. Mention is made of recent British conservation legislation for South Georgia, the Falkland Islands and the Tristan da Cunha group. Some of the next steps are outlined.

The Antarctic paintings of Edward Seago (1910–1974)

Polar Record ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 33 (186) ◽  
pp. 213-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosamunde Codling
Keyword(s):  
Southern Ocean ◽  
Antarctic Peninsula ◽  
Austral Summer ◽  
Falkland Islands ◽  
Landscape Painting ◽  
South Georgia ◽  
Oil Paintings ◽  
Whaling Industry ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
Professional Artist

AbstractThe professional artist Edward Seago (1910–1974) travelled to the Antarctic Peninsula, the Falkland Islands, and South Georgia in the 1956/57 austral summer. Although firmly rooted in the English, and in particular the East Anglian, tradition of landscape painting, Seago was able to portray polar landscapes, which he had not previously experienced, with vigour and delight. He went to Antarctica with a firmly established skill in using oils to capture the essence of a landscape, and, despite being on or near the Antarctic Peninsula for only about three days, he produced about 18 oil paintings, predominantly of landscapes and icescapes. In addition, he painted at least a further 17 works of the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, the whaling industry, and icebergs in the Southern Ocean. Seago had an excellent memory and was able to ‘reproduce’ earlier works, an ability that has caused some confusion. Examples of these counterparts are discussed. A catalogue of his known Antarctic works is given.

Movements of southern elephant seals

1996 ◽  
Vol 74 (8) ◽  
pp. 1485-1496 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. J. McConnell ◽  
M. A. Fedak
Keyword(s):  
Southern Ocean ◽  
Continental Shelf ◽  
Antarctic Peninsula ◽  
Average Rate ◽  
Stationary Phases ◽  
Mirounga Leonina ◽  
Elephant Seals ◽  
South Georgia ◽  
Southern Elephant Seals ◽  
The Antarctic

Twelve southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) were tracked for an average of 119 days as they left their breeding or moulting beaches on the island of South Georgia between 1990 and 1994. Females travelled either eastward up to 3000 km away to the open Southern Ocean or to the continental shelf on or near the Antarctic Peninsula. Males either stayed close to South Georgia or used South Georgia as a base for shorter trips. The females all left South Georgia in a directed manner at an average rate of 79.4 km/day over at least the first 15 days. Thereafter travel was interrupted by bouts of slower travel or stationary phases. The latter were localized at sites on the continental shelf or along its edge. Three seals that were tracked over more than one season repeated their outward direction of travel and used some of the same sites in subsequent years. The magnitude of the movements makes most of the Southern Ocean potentially available to elephant seals.

Arguing with Seals

2019 ◽  
pp. 49-76
Author(s):  
Alessandro Antonello
Keyword(s):  
Antarctic Seals ◽  
Antarctic Treaty ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
High Seas

This chapter analyzes the scientific and diplomatic debates on the question of sealing and seal conservation from 1964 to 1972, particularly the negotiation of the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals. Because the Antarctic Treaty did not apply to the high seas, both scientists and diplomats noted that their 1964 conservation efforts did not cover animals, such as seals and penguins, when they were in the ocean. This gap seemed problematic when there was a push in the mid-1960s to renew commercial sealing in the Antarctic. The Antarctic Treaty parties thus committed to negotiating a treaty to cover seals in the high seas. They persisted in negotiating this agreement even when the prospect of renewed sealing lapsed, because seals and sealing became a useful subject by which the treaty parties, and scientists within SCAR, could continue to mark out their authority and positions for the Antarctic.

scholarly journals XX. Contributions to terrestrial magnetism.-no. x

1866 ◽  
Vol 156 ◽  
pp. 453-543
Keyword(s):  
Southern Ocean ◽  
Falkland Islands ◽  
Magnetic Survey ◽  
Present Communication ◽  
Terrestrial Magnetism ◽  
Cape Of Good Hope ◽  
General Plan ◽  
Detailed Exposition ◽  
Magnetic Elements ◽  
The Antarctic

Resume in this Number of the Contributions the discussion and coordination of the observations of the Antarctic Magnetic Survey executed by Her Majesty’s Ships ‘Erebus’ and ‘Terror,’ under the direction of Sir James Clark Ross, R. N., aided by Captain Francis Rawdon Crozier, R. N., between the years 1839 and 1843. I purpose in the present communication to complete the detailed exposition of the Survey by the reduction of the observations of the three magnetic elements in its con­cluding year, on the same general plan on which similar accounts were given of those of the preceding years in earlier communications, viz., between the Cape of Good Hope and Hobarton in 1840, and between the departure from Hobarton in November 1840, and the return to the same station in April 1841, in No. V. (Philosophical Transactions, 1843, Art. X ) ; and between Hobarton in July 1841 and the Falkland Islands in April 1842 in No. VI. (Philosophical Transactions, 1844, Art. VII.). The observations discussed in the present memoir are those made from the departure from the Falkland Islands in September 1842 to the second arrival at the Cape of Good Hope in April 1843. In a subsequent and concluding memoir, which I hope to present to the Society early in the ensuing session, it will be my endeavour to connect and thoroughly coordinate the several portions of the Survey, comprising in its three portions the circumnavigation of the Southern Ocean from the departure from the Cape of Good Hope in March 1840, to the return of the ships to the same station in April 1843.

Southern Ocean pelagic ecosystems

2005 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 281-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin V. Angel
Keyword(s):  
Southern Ocean ◽  
Sustainable Management ◽  
Scientific Basis ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Anthropogenic Influences ◽  
Zooplankton Species ◽  
Biological Oceanography ◽  
Antarctic Treaty ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
Pelagic Ecosystems

In 1902 the Discovery sailed into an ocean that was almost totally unknown biologically. Even so, its living resources of seals had been extensively hunted almost to the point of extinction. Exploitation of the whales was about to begin. The expedition resulted in the discovery of 23 new zooplankton species; 5% of the presently known mesozooplankton fauna. The results were worked up within six years, and paved the way for the next century of research. The ultimate target was to provide the scientific basis for the sustainable management of the Southern Ocean especially the whale stocks. This paper summarizes the knowledge base at the start of the expedition and how the various strands of research became woven into our understanding of the biological oceanography of the Southern Ocean. The science has been both technology driven and technology limited. It failed to convince decision-makers in time to prevent the gross overexploitation of the whales, but the Antarctic Treaty now provides a framework of protection. However, within the last two decades we have come to realize that it is not just whales that are at risk, and that the remoteness of the Southern Ocean is proving no protection against the pervasiveness of anthropogenic influences.

“Some Sanity and Love”: The Cold War, Antarctic Treaty, and Fids’ identity, 1957–1958

Polar Record ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (5) ◽  
pp. 334-336
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Avery
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Antarctic Peninsula ◽  
Small Groups ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Falkland Islands ◽  
British Government ◽  
Antarctic Treaty ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
National Governments ◽  
The Antarctic

AbstractIn 1942, the British government created the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS) to enforce sovereignty over the Antarctic Peninsula. The small groups of men who worked for the Survey called themselves Fids. During the late 1950s when Antarctic sovereignty was being hotly debated and worked out by national governments, Fids serving at British bases criticised the British government’s use of science as a bargaining chip. Using in-house magazines written and printed at FIDS bases and oral histories, this article examines how Fids viewed Antarctic politics and how those events influenced daily life at bases on the Peninsula.

Responsive Antarctic Law-Making in the Asian Century

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Saul ◽  
Tim Stephens
Keyword(s):  
Southern Ocean ◽  
International System ◽  
Significant Shift ◽  
Asian State ◽  
Antarctic Treaty ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
Law Making ◽  
Antarctic Treaty System

One aspect of the ‘Asian Century’ has been the growing interest from Asian states in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean that surrounds the continent. There has been a significant shift in the approach by a number of Asian states to the Antarctic Treaty and the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) that has been built upon and around it. While Asian states continue to be under-represented in the ATS (there are seven Asian state parties to the Antarctic Treaty), participation has grown, and more significantly the view that the ATS is an ‘exclusive club’ dominated by developed states has given way to a more pragmatic, more cooperative and less ideological approach to Antarctic affairs. Broadening ATS membership and increasing interest from existing Asian state parties to the ATS, most notably China, prompts questions as to whether there are distinctive Asian–Antarctic issues, and if so whether the Antarctic regime can evolve to address them. Specifically, are the governance and law-making processes of the ATS, which have not changed significantly for decades, up to the task of providing an effective international system of Antarctic management in this Asian Century?

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