Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Soviet Union objected to this proposal and continued to catch Minke Whales. Later in the
same decade, Japan claimed scientific research as the justification for its whaling. While the
numbers involved are comparatively small, given past levels of exploitation, the politics of
whaling is fiercely contested. There is some evidence of whale recovery, especially
involving Humpbacks in and around the Antarctic Peninsula. But as numbers of seals and
penguins rise alongside human exploitation of krill and fish, whale numbers may never
recover to their 1940s and 1950s levels.
Living resources in international waters and/or territories where sovereignty is disputed
provide ideal opportunities for the maximization of exploitation leading to the 'tragedy of
commons'. The IWC was intended to introduce a system of regulation and restraint based
on scientific knowledge, in a manner pioneered by the Discovery Investigations.
Notwithstanding conservation measures and changing public opinion, reductions in whaling
were also achieved by the changing political economies of the industry. It is unlikely that
commercial whaling will ever return to Antarctica, apart from 'scientific whaling' by Japan.
Fishing
The exploitation of fish in the Southern Ocean took off from the 1960s onwards. Spurred on
by distant water fishing fleets hailing from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, fishing
entered into a new commercial phase after earlier attempts from the 1930s had failed.
Difficult operational conditions and distance to markets were cited as key inhibitors. In bio-
geographical terms, fish are found in particular places in the Antarctic, including the krill-
rich waters of the Scotia Sea and closer inshore on the continental shelf areas near to the
Antarctic Peninsula, and sub-Antarctic islands such as South Georgia and South Orkney. For
the next 30 years, Soviet and Eastern European fishing fleets dominated the extraction of
bottom-dwelling fish such as the Marbled Rockcod. In 1992-3, 2 million tons of fish were
caught in the Atlantic Ocean sector, and 1.7 million tons in the Indian Ocean sector. More
recently, species such as the Mackerel Icefish and the Patagonian Toothfish have been
commercially exploited in the southern portions of the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
Twelve species of fish have been commercially targeted, and fish that are slow-growing and
enjoy low reproduction rates such as the Patagonian Toothfish are particularly vulnerable to
over-exploitation. Moreover, commercial fishing has negative consequences for the marine
ecosystem. Fishing reduces the total availability of food supply for other animals including
sea birds, seals, and whales, whilst fishing nets and associated debris pose dangers.
Countless examples of entangled birds and seals are routinely reported, with the most
notorious cases involving albatrosses caught up in longline fishing around and scientific
understandingk
In 1982, the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living
