Antarctica Peninsula vacation, highlights tour

Environment

This vacation is built around an expedition cruise to the Antarctic Peninsula, where you will discover intimately the wildlife riches and extraordinary glacial landscapes of the earth’s last pristine wilderness.

An Antarctic cruise on our relatively small expedition ships is an informal, friendly affair. It’s assumed that all visitors will have a love of natural wilderness and wildlife. The staff and crew are highly trained and very experienced in travel in wilderness regions. Captains have spent years navigating polar regions. You will be informed by lecturers who specialise in the natural and human history of the region – many of them well known naturalists or former members of Antarctic scientific expeditions.

All the vessels with which we work, including your cruise ship on this vacation, Ocean Diamond, operate according to a stringent voluntary code of conduct developed by the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators to minimise impact of visits to this fragile environment. The members of IAATO have created visitor guidelines to address the environmental protection of landing sites, the safety of all visitors, and the establishment of operational protocols to provide emergency assistance.

Our company is an associate member of IAATO which means you can be confident that your expedition to Antarctica will adhere to strict guidelines on responsible tourism and environmental protection. We are fully committed to protect this pristine wilderness for future generations.
Your cruise operator, Quark, supports a project to research the threat to Antarctic penguins, as well as a new piece of fishing equipment which will eradicate the problem of seabirds being caught up in nets. On-board auctions are held to raise money from passengers who wish to contribute to local environmental charities.

Your ship, Ocean Diamond, was the first to offer carbon neutral voyages to Antarctica. The ship burns Marine Gas Oil a clean burning fuel with a low emission factor and adopts several eco-friendly practices on board, such as using eco-friendly cleaning materials and recycled paper.

The number of Antarctic tourism activities is increasing, as is their diversity (camping, climbing, kayaking and scuba-diving), activities which we encourage you to participate in to gain an even more intimate experience of Antarctica. These activities do, of course, present new management challenges. As a first step towards a more rigorous control of these activities, the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings (ATCMs) have adopted resolutions to enhance information exchange and consultation and to further the development and implementation of site-specific guidelines. This process is on-going but you can rest assured that these activities are closely controlled by the cruise ships operating them and that no damage will be done to the environment.

Community

There are no settlements in Antarctica save those enabling research and scientific studies. Resource management issues at landing sites include environmental remediation, heritage conservation, visitor safety, and the creation of interpretive services which simultaneously preserve the story of these places and enlist the respect of their visitors.

Antarctic heritage sites are popular attractions because of their historical significance and because of family and cultural ties to the pioneering settlers who once worked there. Responses to requests for visits range from prohibited entry to conditional invitations. Beyond your itinerary on this voyage but none the less reassuring is the fact that, for example, despite the popularity of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s exploits, tourist access is denied to Stromness, South Georgia because of environmental protection concerns, while visitor access to Grytviken, is encouraged.

Antarctic heritage sites in the Ross Sea are permitted with strict controls, and the refurbished 1940s research station at Port Lockroy, in the Antarctic Peninsula Region, actively promotes tourism to share its heritage and to support commercially its postal concession.