ighting and exposing the eggs and chicks to increased predator attack from skuas and other natural enemies (Antarctic Birds, 1977).The historical human activities of slaughtering penguins for their oil and other birds for their feathers has ceased however the legacy of the era, feral cats and rats, remain to prey on ground nesting birds.The Antarctic Treaty (Environment Protection) Act 1980 makes it an offence to "kill, take, injure or otherwise interfere with a native invertebrate or native mammal in the Antarctic" and to "gather, collect, injure or otherwise interfere with a native plant in the Antarctic". It prohibits the significant modification to habitats of plants and animals.The desire for close inspection and photographs by tourists has the potential to disrupt the lifecycle of bird life and is addressed in The Guidelines for Tourist Conduct stating Tourists can not harm any animal or bird damage the environment (ie., litter, harass, or disturb animals or plants (Appendix 1).The Terrestrial Environment and the Human ImpactCampbell, (1998, p. 368) identifies terrestrial life in the Antarctica as unlike that in all other major regions of the world: Some of the major problems associated with Antarctic tourism include the fragility of the fauna as highlighted by Hart (Oceanus, summer, 1988, p. 94). The vegetation is composed almost entirely of low lying mosses and lichens, and there are no vertebrate animals (besides birds and seals which depend on the marine environment for food). Even the climatically less severe sub-Antarctic islands possess a very limited tundra-like vegetation of short flowering plants and ferns with very few shrubby species and no trees; apart from a few land birds, only invertebrate animals are native to the region ( Cameron, 1972, p. 267).The damage of a single footprint can destroy fragile grasses, mosses and lichens that will not recover. If carelessness were to prevail, the environment of Antarctica cou...
