In the Southern Ocean, fishing for finfish began in 1969/70 and for krill in 1972/73. The Soviet Union was the most important fishing nation, taking 80–90% of the entire catch. More than 3 million tonnes of finfish wereharvested prior to 1992/93, most of the catch coming from around South Georgia and lies Kerguelen. After 15 years of exploitation, most fish stocks were heavily depleted. The krill catch from the Southern Ocean has been 4.9 million tonnes to date. More than 90% of this catch has originated from the Atlantic sector. 50–90% is taken from the foraging range of land-based predators during the critical period of their breeding cycle when they raise their young. This creates the potential for direct competition between krill fisheries and krill-dependent predators. Potential impacts of krill and finfishing on the ecosystems of the Southern Ocean range from endangering recruitment due to the by-catch of juvenile fish in the krill fishery to incidental mortality of birds during longline operations and the entanglement of seals in fragments of discarded or lost fishing gear.

Most fish stocks had already been over-exploited before the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) came into force in 1982. Stringent conservation measures to halt the further decline of the stocks have been implemented only since 1989. There is evidence that some fish stocks have started to recover recently. Precautionary catch limits for krill of 1.5 million tonnes for the Atlantic sector (Statistical Area 48), and of 390, 000 tonnes for Statistical Division 58. 4.2 in the Indian sector, were set in 1991 and 1992, respectively. CCAMLR has implemented a number of conservation measures to safeguard other components of the marine ecosystems from fishing. CCAMLR adopted a system of inspection in 1989/90 and a scheme of international scientific observation in 1992. It is too early to judge the efficacy of these enforcement and data-gathering programmes.

There is a growing recognition in CCAMLR of the need for preventati ve measures in circumstances of biological uncertainty. The development of multi-species management models appears to be remote at present. The way forward is likely to be a single-species model for the krill fishery, which needs to take implicit account of the demands of natural predators, particularly at small scales. If demersal fish stocks are able to recover to their maximum sustainable yield level, the fishery potential of the Southern Ocean is likely to be much larger than current catches. The fishery potential of krill and mesopelagic lanternfish is likely to exceed that of demersal fish stocks by an order of magnitude. By contrast with the 1970s and 1980s, when most fisheries were subsidized, economic considerations and market demands will be the primary determinants of the development of fishing in southern waters during the 1990s.

The eleventh successive annual United Nations discussion on the ‘Question of Antarctica’ took place at the close of 1993. In November the UN First Committee, guided by two reports from the UN Secretary-General, adopted a further resolution, which was adopted in December by the General Assembly as resolution A48/80. As usual, UN members, although displaying evidence of a wider international recognition of the regime's merits, proved critical of the Antarctic Treaty System. By contrast, Antarctic Treaty Parties (ATPs) remained reluctant to allow the UN the type of role in Antarctica advocated by their critics. ATPs, following the course adopted in 1985, still refused either to participate in the UN discussions or to vote. As a result, it proved impossible yet again to secure a consensus about either the ‘Question of Antarctica’ in general or the UN's role in Antarctica in particular. One significant advance in 1993 concerned the end of demands advanced since 1985 for South Africa's exclusion from Antarctic meetings, a change prompted by the dismantlement of the apartheid regime. The ‘Question of Antarctica’ is scheduled to be placed on the UN agenda in 1994.

Daytime (or dayside cleft) aurora is almost a permanent feature of the midday skies over Spitsbergen during the continuous darkness of the polar night It was observed in one or other of its characteristic forms around geomagnetic noon on 58 of 59 clear day sduring the wintersof 1987/1988, 1990/1991, and 1992/1993. The three types of day time aurora were studied by visual, colour photographic, and interference-filter techniques to confirm the precise nature of the observed emissions. Prenoon aurora, which is characterised by diffuse, patchy, green aurora at 557.7 nm, was observed on 42 occasions. It is generated by low-energy electrons of less than 300 eV coming through the entry layer of the dayside cleft. Noontime aurora, which consists largely of pure red emissions at 630.0/636.4 nm, was observed on 50 occasions. It is generated by high-flux, very low-energy electrons of 10–50 eV flowing directly from the solar wind through the polar cusp. Postnoon aurora, which is characterised by discrete, green auroral arcs at 557.7 nm, was also observed on 42 occasions. Like prenoon aurora, it is generated by low-energy electrons of less than 300 eV derived from the entry layer of the cleft Occasionally, some background or diffuse aurora is also observed, generated by high fluxes of low-energy proton precipitation and characterised by the hydrogen lines Hα and Hβ. On the one exceptional day on which daytime aurora was not observed, magnetic activity was exceptionally low.

These ground-based observations complement satellite studies of analogous auroral events. In particular, the visual characteristics of the different types of daytime aurora may be explained in terms of the flux rates and energy profiles of the electrons that have been mapped in the different regions of the dayside cleft by satellite-borne detectors.

A range of geographical, political, legal, economic, scientific, environmental, and other inter-connections can be drawn between the Falkland Islands and Antarctica. One common element concerns the fact that both areas remain the subject of long-standing dispute between Argentina and Britain. In the past, various attempts have been made to present Antarctic experience as the basis for action in the Falklands question, most notably, as part of the search for a resolution of the Anglo-Argentine impasse regarding sovereignty over the Falklands/Malvinas. A number of proposed linkages are examined, although, admittedly, it is easier to pose questions than to provide answers. Nevertheless, the proposals articulate the merits of viewing the Falkland Islands in a wider regional context, defined as covering the archipelago, South Georgia, the South Sandwich Islands, Antarctica, and possibly South America.

Following his return from participating in John Franklin's first overland expedition (1819–1822), Willard Wentzel, a clerk for the North West Company, produced a map of the Mackenzie River and a brief account of its geography, native peoples, and history and significance as it related to the North West Company. This map and the account, which is one of the few early descriptions of the Mackenzie River area, are held in the Royal Commonwealth Society Papers at the University of Cambridge. They have not previously been published.

This paper describes some of the very severe problems of pollution found in the industrialised regions of Kol'skiy Poluostrov (Kola Peninsula) in the European Russian Arctic. Information concerning this area, as is the case for other parts of the former Soviet Union, has tended in the past to be inaccessible, or highly fragmented. By assembling information from a variety of sources, including discussion with local experts, the authors have produced a coherent picture of the background to and current extent of industrial pollution in this area. The problems are shown to be quite as severe as western scientists have feared.

Between 1894 and 1909, Walter Wellman (1858–1934), a Chicago-based journalist and explorer, organized and led five expeditions to reach the North Pole. Wellman launched his most ambitious undertaking in 1906, constructing an extensive base camp complete with an airship hangar on the shoreline of Virgohamn, a small harbor on Danskøya in the Svalbard archipelago. In 1907 and 1909, Wellman's two flights in the dirigible airship America marked the first time a motorized airship had flown in the Arctic. In the summer of 1993, the author surveyed and mapped the extent of the remains of Wellman's camp to discover and document any surviving wreckage of America, and to observe the impact of tourist traffic on the site. This paper describes the 1993 survey of Wellman's base camp at Virgohamn and offers suggestions for its preservation.

After its rejection of the Minerals Convention adopted by the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties (ATCPs) in 1988, Australia took a major step in its domestic law by enacting the Antarctic Mining Prohibition Act of 1991 (AMPA), to reinforce its general objection to mineral resource activities in Antarctica and its commitment to the protection ofthe Antarctic environment. With the adoption of the Protocol on Environmental Protectionto the Antarctic Treaty (the Madrid Protocol) – which required the parties to take steps to implement its provisions, including the enactment of domestic legislation – Australia enacted the Antarctic Treaty (Environmental Protection) Act (ATEPA). The ATEPA is meant to replace the AMPA once the Madrid Protocol comes into force. The Protocol bans mineral resource activities in Antarctica and adopts a comprehensive regime toregulate all human activity in Antarctica in an effort to protect the region's environment. As legislation to implement the Protocol, the principal objectives of the ATEPAare to prohibit mineral resource activities in the Australian Antarctic Territory and toregulate all human activity that may have a direct impact on the environment in the area. It also prohibits Australian nationals from engaging in mineral resource activities elsewhere in Antarctica. Like Australia, a number of ATCPs have either adopted legislationor are developing legislation in their domestic legal systems to implement the Protocol.It is one thing for the Protocol to demand the adoption of domestic legislation to ensure compliance with its provisions, including the ban on mining; it is quite another thingto develop effective domestic legislation on the issue. Given the absence of any knowncommercially exploitable deposits of minerals in Antarctica, the likelihood of any mineralresource activity in the region is very remote. But should mining activity occur in Antarctica in breach of the Protocol, the enforcement of the ban could be fraught with practical, legal, and policy difficulties. This paper examines the domestic legislative efforts by Australia as a leading ATCP to ban mining activity in Antarctica. Even though the discussion focuses on Australia by examining its legislation, the problems and the issues raised in the Australian context are also relevant to other ATCPs generally and to claimants in particular.

As a result of new provisions in the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty a number of countries are reviewing the management plans for protected areas in Antarctica. The United States and New Zealand have initiated a review of the 15 existing sites in the Ross Sea region, using an independent party, the International Centre for Antarctic Information and Research, to facilitate and coordinate the process. Management provisions are being revised to comply with the Protocol, and improved maps for the sites are being prepared using Geographical Information Systems. Visits in 1993/94 gathered field information, and thus far two sites have had new plans drafted: these are proceeding through the international review process. Input and comment is invited from interested parties with experience in these areas.

Concentration levels of various organochlorine pesticides and their derivatives — namely, hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCH) and the DDT compounds pp'-DDT, op'-DDT, pp'-DDE, op'-DDE, pp'-DDD, and op'-DDD — were determined in the sediments from eight different lakes of the Schirmacher Oasis, near Dakshin Gangotri, the Indian station (70° 45'S, 11° 44'E) during the Sixth Indian scientific expedition to Antarctica (December 1986 to February 1987). Concentration levels of HCHs (α, β, γ)and t-DDT (pp'-DDT + op'-DDT + pp'-DDE + op'-DDE + pp'-DDD + op'-DDD) in sediments of these lakes were found to be in the ranges of 37.7–155 pg/gand 512.9–1131 pg/g, respectively. Among the isomers of HCH, gamma-HCH was most prominent, followed by alpha-HCH, whereas in the case of metabolites of DDT and its isomers, pp'-DDT was found to be dominant over others. However, all the other compounds of the DDT family were present in considerable amounts in all the lakes. There was no significant change in the monthly variation of the concentration levels of HCHs and DDTs in the lakes.

Evidence for the disturbance of king penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) and other seabirds at sub-Antarctic islands by fixed-wing aircraft making airdrops is reviewed. Based on direct observations of panicking birds at king penguin colonies at Marion Island as Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft flew past, it is postulated that the incident at Macquarie Island in 1990 when many king penguins were found dead shortly after a flypast was most likely caused by panic induced by the aircraft's passage. Visits by fixed-wing aircraft to sub-Antarctic islands should be kept to a minimum and no airstrips should be built on them. Specific recommendations are given for fixed-wing aircraft visits to Marion Island, in order to reduce disturbance to king penguins and other seabirds to the absolute minimum. These recommendations should be adopted at all sub-Antarctic islands.

Antarctic tourism is evolving at an ever-increasing pace. More than 7000 tourists, a record number, visited the Antarctic aboard cruise ships, yachts, and aircraft during the 1992/1993 season. As annual tourist, tour operator, cruise, and cruise ship totals increase, so do the number of landing sites used for tour visits. Although the Antarctic tourism industry was once characterized by small expedition-sized vessels, 50% of Antarctic cruise passengers travelled aboard ships with a capacity of 250 or more during the 1992/1993 season. These developments present challenges to Antarctic policy makers. There is growing awareness that environmental issues arising from Antarctic tourist activity are increasingly important, but, to date, comprehensive data on Antarctic tourism are not available from a central source. This study compiles data from numerous sources in order to develop a clearer picture of the nature and scale of Antarctic tourist activity. In an effort to present an overview of Antarctic tourism, data from the 1992/1993 season are considered along with important issues in the tourism debate, including significant trends and recent developments in the tourism industry, Antarctic tourism research, tourist landings in Antarctica, industrial self-regulation, emerging issues, Antarctic Treaty negotiations on tourism, and national initiatives to improve dialogue between the industry and Antarctic policy makers. Research is underway to understand better the nature of tourist visits and the effect they have on the Antarctic environment and related ecosystems. The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) plays an important role in disseminating information to tour operators planning visits to the Antarctic, but more could be done by this organization and non-members of IAATO to comply with Treaty provisions. Improved compliance with Treaty provisions and tour operator and visitor guidelines is needed, at least until the environmental effects of tour visits are better understood and the more comprehensive regulation set out in the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty is implemented.

A number of countries are revising management plans for protected areas in Antarctica so that they comply with Annex V to the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty. Annex V allows for ‘identification of zones…in which activities are to be prohibited, restricted or managed.’ A wide range of terms are, and could be, used to meet site-specific zoning needs. If allowed to develop in an ad hoc way, a confusing and inconsistent set of zones would be likely to evolve. This could be avoided by a coordinated and pro-active approach to identifying the zones needed. Based on field observations and examination of current and proposed management plans, a simple, standardised model of five types of zone is proposed: Restricted, Scientific, Tourist, Facilities, and Historic. Their application, where needed, would meet the full range of management needs within specially protected and managed areas in Antarctica.

For a long period the Northern Sea Route was considered by the Soviet Union as a national seaway closed to foreign shipping. In 1987 Mikhail Gorbachev announced his intention to open the Northern Sea Route for international navigation. In the following years a number of acts were adopted to realise this idea. These documents clarified to a great extent the attitude of the USSR to the sector concept, historic waters, and other aspects of the northern seas. Nevertheless, some uncertainties in the legal status of the Northern Sea Route remain. This article focuses on the doctrinal views, state practice of the USSR and Russia, and prospects of internationalisation of the Northern Sea Route on the basis of international convention.

The period 1877–1878 was one of tension between Britain and Russia caused by the Russo-Turkish War and the consequent threat to the route to India. The Royal Navy was deployed to deter the Russians in seas adjacent to the Balkans, but also undertook intelligence gathering missions further afield. Two of these were to Petropavlovsk in sub-Arctic Kamchatka and were undertaken by Commander A.L. Douglas in HMS Egeria. The British, with their French allies, had sustained a serious defeat there during the Crimean War and wished to ascertain the state of Russian defences should there be fresh hostilities. In the event, Douglas discovered that the Russians had abandoned Petropavlovsk as a fortified post and that there was no garrison. His reports were, therefore, negative, but included interesting information concerning Petropavlovsk in this era.

In 1914 the Northern Exploration Company of London employed Commander Victor Campbell (the leader of the Northern Party of Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova expedition of 1910–1913) to voyage to Spitsbergen in charge of a mineral-prospecting team. Campbell sailed in the schooner Willem Barents, taking Michael Barne (the second lieutenant on the British National Antarctic Expedition of 1901–1904) as mate. There was a mixed British and Norwegian crew. Between May and August, Campbell took the schooner to various sites between Recherchefjorden and Krossfjorden on the west coast of Spitsbergen, maintaining two-way contact with London through the Norwegian radio station at Grønfjorden. Hearing that war was about to break out, the expedition visited the German meteorological station at Ebeltofthamna, then sailed back to Norway, from where the British members returned to England.

The completion of the SCAR Antarctic digital database (ADD) has provided a new basis for statistical calculations for Antarctica: data-sets are available at the scale of the original source material, and generalised to 1:1,000,000, 1:3,000,000, 1:10,000,000, and 1:30,000,000. The new descriptive statistics presented are based on the ADD 1:1,000,000 data-set since this is the largest scale at which source maps provided complete cover of the coastline and ice-free areas. The statistics include the total length and proportions of coastline types and the total area of Antarctica with the proportions of its constituent feature types. The areas of the Ross and Filchner-Ronne ice shelves have also been computed. Whilst the total area of Antarctica has remained static compared with previous studies, the relative proportions of coastline types and constituent feature types within the total area show significant changes. In particular the calculated area of ice-free ground is only approximately one-seventh of that often quoted from previous studies. The changes reported result from improved mapping, reinterpretation of data, and actual changes of coastline.

The Palmer-Pendleton sealing and exploring expedition (1829–1831) was the first American voyage of discovery to the Antarctic that had official government sanction. For the writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), this expedition was an important landmark in an age when science was beginning to change the American continent socially, politically, and geographically. The shift away from Jefferson's agrarian Utopia was marked tangibly by increased industrialisation, the advent of the railroad, the growth of scientific societies, the beginning of elite professionalisation in the sciences, and this major American Antarctic voyage. In the same year as the expedition left the US, Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881), philosopher and author, recorded the effect that such scientific and technological changes had wrought upon the literary artist when he characterised the era metaphorically as: ‘the Age of Machinery in every outward and inward sense of that word.’ The belief that a repetitive, blunt mechanism that stifled artistic imagination had entered society led Poe to offer a stark criticism of science and scientific method in his tale ‘MS found in a bottle’ (1832). This tale, written shortly after the return of the Palmer-Pendleton expedition, centres upon a voyage to the Antarctic and embodies some of Poe's finest early writing. Interleaved with the critique of science are contemporary themes of discovery, and the Romantic preoccupation with man's relationship to nature.

Under the regime established by the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, decision-making remains exclusively with the limited number of states that are entitled to appoint representatives to participate in Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings. Whereas the 12 original signatory states have a permanent right to attend these meetings, acceding states may gain consultative status only during the time they carry out substantial scientific research in the Antarctic. This paper addresses three issues: the first relates to the problems arising out of the ‘admission procedure’ adopted by the original signatory states when faced with the first application of an acceding state to become an Antarctic Treaty Consultative Party, a procedure that has been applied ever since to similar cases. The second looks at the forms of scientific research activities an acceding party ought to conduct in Antarctica in order to meet the requirements laid down in the Antarctic Treaty. The third deals more generally with the issue of limited participation in the Antarctic Treaty decision-making process, which has come under severe criticism from non-Consultative Parties and states that have not acceded to the Treaty.