Australian Antarctic Territory, Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands, and observations on Macquarie Island Tasmania
Theme commentary
Australian National Committee on Antarctic Research
prepared for the 2006 Australian State of the Environment Committee, 2006
Introduction
The Australian Antarctic Territory is defined as ‘that part of the territory in the Antarctic seas which comprises all the islands and territories, other than Adélie Land1 , situated south of the 60th degree south latitude and lying between the 160th degree east longitude and the 45th degree east longitude’. This is equivalent to 42 per cent of the Antarctic continent.
For this report, Australia’s sub-Antarctic Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands, and Macquarie Island (Tasmania) are also included as the Department of the Environment and Heritage, through the Australian Government Antarctic Division, has management responsibility for Heard and McDonald Islands and for the station precinct on Macquarie Island. The report also coves the Southern Ocean between Australia and Australia’s Antarctic Territory.
Antarctica plays a key role in regulating the world’s weather, climate and oceanic processes. Antarctica has an enormous influence on the natural and ‘human’ environment within Antarctica, as well as globally.
Antarctica and the high-latitude Southern Ocean are especially important to Australia because of their proximity, their influence on regional climate processes, and the significance of the Southern Ocean to our fisheries .
In turn, the region is influenced by activities undertaken by humans within Antarctica and outside, as well as by what is occurring naturally in the global and local environment.
Antarctica provides a platform for better understanding the functioning and health of the planet, and provides an early warning system for the rest of the world. For example, the discovery of stratospheric ozone thinning over Antarctica by United Kingdom scientists spurred global action to reduce atmospheric pollution levels.
The Australian Antarctic Territory theme commentary addresses three main issues:
Antarctica and the surrounding Southern Ocean are vast, remote and inhospitable. Human activities in the Antarctic have always been hazardous and expensive, and are likely to remain so. Research in many disciplines has been undertaken over only the last 50 years, collecting data from geographically sparse, remote and infrequently visited sites. The opportunities offered by satellite and airborne remote sensing equipment have really only been available since the 1970s, and are not directly applicable to all disciplines.
Therefore, although the Antarctic is the focus of issues of global concern such as climate change, sea-level rise and the effects of the ‘ozone hole’ , this report is necessarily cautious about speculation on some issues.
This report notes the inevitability of changes in the Antarctic environment due to global factors such as climate change, and atmospheric and oceanic pollutants . The Antarctic itself plays a key role in the global climate system, and much important research focuses on the cause-and-effect relationships and feedback loops between this region and the rest of the world. Symptoms and effects of global change in the Antarctic may become initially apparent at the most subtle of levels—in slight changes to sea-ice formation and ocean chemistry , and in the biological health of the microscopic marine organisms at the bottom of the food chain.
A general conclusion is that observed changes in many parameters are what might be expected in response to changes in the global climate and atmospheric chemistry. While there appears to be a decrease in the ice mass of West Antarctica, there appears to be an increase in that of East Antarctica, which includes all of the Australian Antarctic Territory. Of particular note, the report concludes that the rate of thinning of stratospheric ozone appears to be declining, and may be stabilising, in part possibly as a result of the global effort to control ozone depleting substances since 1990s.
With respect to marine organisms, the report notes the recovery of seal populations since the cessation of wide-scale commercial hunting in the early 20th century, but also the continued illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing in the Southern Ocean which confounds attempts by Australia and other concerned nations to establish a sustainable fishery, and to reduce its effects on the wider environment. Of particular concern is the decline in numbers of Wandering Albatross and Southern Giant Petrels as a result of the illegal, unregulated and unreported fishery, which has little incentive to avoid seabird bycatch . Southern Ocean whales are believed to be slowly recovering from the exploitation of the 19th and 20th centuries, but population data remains particularly difficult to obtain on such widely ranging animals over such a vast area.
The environmental impacts of human activities in Australia’s Antarctic Territory are believed to be fairly stable, and highly localised to the immediate environs of the permanent stations. Abandoned waste dumps are a legacy of the mid-20th century activities of national operators and, together with remediation of localised hydrocarbon-contaminated sites and sewage discharge, remain a priority for the Australian program. The Australian Government Antarctic Division has removed around half of the contaminated waste from the old Casey tip, leads research to manage contaminants in frozen ground amongst Antarctic operators, and is investigating replacements to the sewage treatment plants at the Australian stations. Tourism remains concentrated around the Antarctic Peninsula, with insufficient regular activity in Australia’s Antarctic Territory to determine a trend.
The threat of introduced plants, animals, invertebrates and disease to the Antarctic environment is largely ill-defined among Antarctic operators; however, Australia has developed standards and guidelines to prevent such introductions and is working with other Antarctic Treaty parties to refine and implement them widely.
Footnote
1 Térre Adélie, claimed by France: 136 °E to 142 °E.