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ANTARCTICA: Argentina to Study Effects of Spill

Marcela Valente* - Tierramérica

BUENOS AIRES, Feb 14 2007 (IPS) - The fuel spilled from a Norwegian cruise ship in Antarctica won’t leave dramatic images of penguins covered in petroleum. But the spill is indeed a threat to the region’s fragile biodiversity, warn experts.

According to the follow-up by scientists from the Argentine and Spanish research bases, the diesel fuel spilled on Deception Island, on the western coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, may have evaporated.

“We only found some traces on the beach, and no serious damages,” Mariano Memolli, head of the Argentine National Directorate of the Antarctic, told Tierramérica.

Nevertheless, Memolli admitted that experts from the directorate will conduct “a more in-depth study to investigate whether there is greater impact than what is perceived at first glance.”

The incident occurred on Jan. 30, when the Nordkapp cruise ship, carrying 295 passengers and 76 crew members, ran aground at Neptune’s Bellows, a rocky area bordering Deception Island. The ship lost 500 to 700 litres of diesel, reported the Hurtigruten Group, the company that operates the ship.

Memolli had warned of the serious threat to the penguins, killer whales and cormorants in the area. When the research bases confirmed that it was a light fuel – not heavy petroleum – the scenario was ruled out, but “we must not belittle the importance of this incident,” he said.

Oscar Amín, biologist and pollution expert with the Austral Centre for Scientific Research, explained to Tierramérica that the fact that it was light fuel has its pros and cons: “The good thing is that most of it evaporates, the bad is that the fraction that remains is very toxic and is soluble in water.”

This could affect seaweed, bivalve shellfish and small fish species, as well as birds – like penguins – that feed on those fish, he said.

Deception Island is one of Antarctica’s Specially Protected Areas, due to the species it holds and its scientific and touristic value. It is a volcanic formation in the shape of a nearly-closed ring, and is home to a wide variety of fauna, and a cove of thermal waters where visitors can swim.

Antarctica has a total area of 14 million square kilometres. The continent is a frozen desert, with scant flora or fauna, but it is rich in biodiversity along its extensive coastline, where many kinds of animals arrive to reproduce during the southern hemisphere summer.

Also along the coast are hundreds of species of lichen and moss, seven types of penguin (adélies, chinstrap, emperor, rockhopper, king, gentoo and macaroni), and six kinds of petrels, as well as albatross, cormorants, seagulls, skuas and Antarctic doves.

The sea holds hundreds of species of fish adapted to frigid temperatures, whales (including toothed whales, blue, fin, humpback, right and minke whales), a variety of seals (crabeater, leopard, Ross and Weddell), sea elephants and sea lions.

“The Antarctic ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to disturbances, and have very low natural capacity for recovery,” says the study “Tourism Activities and Fragility of the Antarctic Ecosystems” (2005), by biologist Rubén Quintana, of the University of Buenos Aires regional ecology laboratory.

“The moss and lichen withstand the cold, the ice and the drought, but they are very vulnerable to being trampled, and if they are removed, they take years to recover,” he added.

Penguins have low tolerance to human presence, he said, and noted the dramatic reduction in the population of the penguin colony at Cape Royds, which had to be closed to tourism. “The 10,000 annual visitors to Deception Island could alter the conditions of that unique environment,” said Quintana.

He also warned about the risk of oil spills. “An increase in traffic of big tourist ships in Antarctic seas could increase the risk of fuel spills from accidents,” he said, recommending “greater controls in order to reduce risks.”

At a Feb. 5 meeting in the southern Argentine city of Ushuaia, convened by the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators, executive director Denise Landau played down the Nordkapp spill, pointing out that it was the first in 45 years of tours to Antarctica.

But she failed to count the sinking of the Argentine navy ship Bahía Paraíso.

In 1989, the ship ran aground the coast of Anvers Island, where the Palmer base, of the United States, is located. The ship carried tourists and scientists, and was evacuated before it sank.

The incident caused a spill of 600,000 litres of gasoil, creating a slick covering 100 square kilometres. Molluscs, cormorants, penguins and other species were the fatal victims of that disaster.

A study by Argentina’s Naval Hydrography Service conducted in 2001 found that, 12 years after the spill, the sunken shell of the Bahía Paraíso had a chronic fuel leak that was visible on the water’s surface.

Given such long-term risks, Memolli said that in the framework of the Antarctic Treaty (in force since 1961), Argentina proposed prevention of the cumulative impact of visits to sensitive areas like Deception Island – but that debate is just beginning.

(*Originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme.)