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A group of UNBC students and their professor have just returned from the barren continent of Antarctica, where they looked for any impacts due to tourism, global warming and other factors.
Student Jen Bennett said the impacts from tourism are pretty low at this point in history.
Although they did see four other boats in the area, Bennett said, "There's not too many tourists. I don't think there's any impact from that."
"The animal population there was completely unbothered by us. The penguins would scatter a little and the seals would bark a little."
Prof. Pat Maher added that if you sat still, penguins would come right up to you and "try and peck a tag off your jacket."
"They are super-curious and there are thousands of them," said Maher, noting the other wildlife observed included seabirds, and humpback, fin and minke whales.
Student Kendra Johnston was taken by the sheer barrenness of the area that offered only rocks and ice, lichen and mosses and two flowering plants, but no trees.
"The landscape is vast, but I like the barrenness part," said Johnston.
Considering that Antarctica is unlikely to become a tourist attraction, Maher was asked why there is concern about impacts on a continent 20,000 kilometres away.
"Antarctica is a driver for so much of the rest of the world. If the ice melts there, it will have huge implications as the ocean rises. We need to protect it for the rest of the planet."
The students of UNBC's outdoors and tourism management program will use their knowledge in their own way in the future.
"Our hope is they share their experience with others and express the importance to the rest of the world," said Maher.
The students, who also included Tasha Peterson and Sydney van Loon, travelled and lived with 19 staff and 65 other students from universities in Canada, U.S., Europe and Asia on a U.S. polar expedition vessel that accommodated 100 people.
"It was great to see such a big group of students take it all in, and the magnitude of the expedition was amazing," said Maher.
It was mid-summer in Antarctica where temperatures ranged from zero to five degrees Celsius.
"But the weather can change in a matter of minutes with the wind changing from five knots to 50," said Peterson.
The students visited some historic sites while there like Point Wild and the site where the Shackelton expedition members were left for four moths while their leader went for help.
"We also visited Port Lockory, a British scientific base, which is one of many international sites," said Maher.
"Everybody has a scientific base there except Canada," said Maher, who plans to run another Antarctica expedition in 2011.
Original source taken from: http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/20090304179516/local/news/unbc-prof-students-return-from-antarctica.html