Banned Websites Awareness Day 2024 is on Wednesday, September 25, 2024: advantages of eco tourism in Antarctica?
Wednesday, September 25, 2024 is Banned Websites Awareness Day 2024. BWAD-2013_banner_website.png Banned Websites Awareness Day
Been 3 times (Antarctica/South Georgia/Falkland Islands) on small ship expedition cruises. Visited several of the research stations in the area. They are always happy to greet visitors!
Small ships are allowed to land passengers (100 max at a time) or if 200 passengers max. in 2 groups. Before landing/on return to ship you have to walk through disinfectant tank to kill off any spores etc. and prevent cross infection/contamination.. When landing you always wear wellington boots/waterproof over-trousers as you land in the surf.
Large cruise ships cannot land passengers which is the whole point of being there! Heavy fuel oil ships are being or already (not sure which) banned as they are terrified of a shipwreck and contamination of the environment as due to cold the oil would not disperse.
Visiting only allowed Nov - Mar (Summer time) as conditions in Winter too severe and greatly increases chance of disaster! Not as cold as expected, but still goes down to -10 some days, other days +5 with brilliant sun and you have to strip off all your cold weather clothes!
Fantastic, Incredible, Overwhelming, Beautiful, Mystical are the words you use but are totally inadequate! Twice have been hit by force 11 storms, 85mph gales and 36ft sea swell - think of the film Perfect Storm!
Wildlife is incredible, especially South Georgia. Last November spent 8 days there, did not even go to Antarctic peninsular! Sitting in the middle of 200,000 King penguins watching their woolly chicks and all the antics they get up to! Watching the male elephant seals (4 ton of angry blubber!) fighting over their harems in the surf while surrounded by snow covered mountains and glaciers just makes you want to go back again and again!
So the benefits are:-
Raising awareness of Antarctica means the wider world will realise how fragile it is - and help protect it.
The destruction of Spain's coastline for mass tourism (as an example) is a terrible warning and the countries responsible for Antarctica are heeding the lessons!
On South Georgia they are carrying out rat elimination (the rats came on the whaling ships from the past) as the birds eggs / chicks are being eaten by the rats and the bird population is declining. Look at their website:-
www.sght.org
Squid conservation measures are being introduced as they are in danger of being eliminated by over fishing.
Long line fishing (up to 25km!!!) is killing the albatrosses as they try and catch the baited hooks and drown.
Huge "vacuum cleaner" Norwegian ships are starting to extract large volumes of krill to turn into fertiliser. Krill is the basic food building block for all sea-life. If overused it will kill all sea life and leave a sterile sea! It is no use saying "plenty there" that is what they said about the whales!
So by encouraging regulated eco-tourism facts (like these) are getting more widely know and abuses are being reported/stopped.
Reasons why someone would WANT to live/visit in Antarctica?
Been 3 times (Antarctica/South Georgia/Falkland Islands) on small ship expedition cruises. Visited several of the research stations in the area. They are always happy to greet visitors and talk about their work/research!
Small ships are allowed to land passengers (100 max at a time) or up to 200 passengers max. in 2 groups. Before landing/on return to ship you have to walk through disinfectant tank to kill off any spores etc. and prevent cross infection/contamination.. When landing you always wear wellington boots/waterproof over-trousers as you land in the surf.
Large cruise ships are not allowed to land passengers which is of course the whole point of visiting the region! Heavy fuel oil ships are being or already (not sure which) banned as the authorities are terrified of a shipwreck and contamination of the environment as due to cold the oil would not disperse.
Visiting only allowed Nov - Mar (Summer time) as conditions in Winter too severe and greatly increases chance of disaster! Not as cold as expected, but still goes down to -10 some days, other days +5 with brilliant sun and you have to strip off all your cold weather clothes!
Fantastic, Incredible, Overwhelming, Beautiful, Mystical are the words you use but are totally inadequate!
Twice have been hit by force 11 storms, 85mph gales and 36ft sea swell - think of the film Perfect Storm!
Wildlife is incredible, especially South Georgia. Last November spent 8 days there, did not even go to Antarctic peninsular! Sitting in the middle of 200,000 King penguins watching their woolly chicks and all the antics they get up to! Watching the male elephant seals (4 ton of angry blubber!) fighting over their harems in the surf while surrounded by snow covered mountains and glaciers just makes you want to go back again and again!
So the benefits are:-
Raising awareness of Antarctica means the wider world will realise how fragile it is - and help protect it.
Deep drilling to get ice cores allows us to see what the climate was like millions of years ago.
They are also drilling over 2 miles deep into Lake Vostok which they think is a fresh water "submerged lake" not frozen. It defies the normal physics rules so they want to investigate to try and understand why/what/where/when.
Monitoring all the offshore ice-shelf's as eventually they all break off and drift away.
Monitoring of all animals/birds to monitor their activities and breeding.
The destruction of Spain's coastline for mass tourism (as an example) is a terrible warning and the countries responsible for Antarctica are heeding the lessons!
On South Georgia they are carrying out rat elimination (the rats came on the whaling ships from the past) as the birds eggs / chicks are being eaten by the rats and the bird population is declining. Look at their website:-
www.sght.org
Squid conservation measures are being introduced as they are in danger of being eliminated by over fishing by vessels equipped with huge "over the side" lighting arrays that attract the squid to the surface.
Long line fishing (up to 25km!!!) is killing the albatrosses as they try and catch the baited hooks and drown. New international rules are being introduced to prevent/reduce the slaughter.
Huge "vacuum cleaner" Norwegian ships are starting to extract large volumes of krill to turn into fertiliser. Krill is the basic food building block for all sea-life. If overused it will kill all sea life and leave a sterile sea! It is no use saying "plenty there" that is what they said about the whales!
So by encouraging regulated eco-tourism and research facts (like these) are getting more widely know and abuses are being reported/stopped.
Is it worth it? Yes, most certainly if you realise that Antarctica is a rock "island" covered in ice.
If the ice melted it would raise the world's sea level by ????? (estimates from 60-200ft) which would mean most of the worlds cities would be submerged!
If the same thing happened in Greenland (already starting!!!!) add 50% to those figures and you realise most of our continents would disappear under the sea!
Are puppymills illegal?
stoppuppymills.org for those who dont know what it is, strong pictures though
some places they are some unfortunatly they arent as long as they keep up some minimal conditions
if enough awareness is raised and people starts caring then posible you can get a national ban on them in the states like many places elsewhere
but untill then it differs from state too state
tell people to go too the website above, tell them about the mills, tell them to not get dogs and kittens from stores and too not belive stores when they say they dont have mill animals, tell them to not give any buisnis to stores that sell instead of cooperating with shelters for adoption days
the best that can be done untill a national ban is given, is to just run stores that suport mills by buying their product, out of buisnis, if people favor puppy and kitten free animal stores, more stores will become free of those products and work with shelters instead to bring in buisnis
so dont just dont buy a dog in a store that sell them, dont buy anything from them, if your friends ask tell them about why, use any opertunity to enligthen people
its a democratsy, if the majority demand that it needs to be stoped, you can make it happen
