Antarctic nations to impose limits code
Source: Agencies |
December 13, 2009, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
COUNTRIES that manage Antartica plan tough new controls on ships visiting southern oceans and fuels they use to reduce the threat of human and environmental disasters as tourist numbers rise, officials said yesterday.
The new code will reduce the number of ships carrying tourists into the region by requiring that all vessels have hulls strengthened to withstand sea ice. Officials and ship operators said a ban on heavy fuel oil will effectively shut out cruise ships.
Experts from among the 47 signatory nations to the Antarctic Treaty - the world's main tool for managing the continent - and the International Maritime Organization discussed plans to impose a mandatory Polar Code to control all shipping in the region at a meeting in the New Zealand capital, Wellington.
The safeguards are seen as necessary to limit accidents in the region, where blinding sleet, fog, high winds and treacherous seas pose major dangers for ships and huge problems for rescuers located thousands of kilometers from remote Antarctic waters.
The code will cover vessel design, safety equipment, ship operations and crew training for ice navigation, meeting chairman and New Zealand Antarctic policy specialist Trevor Hughes said.
The nearly completed Polar Code is expected to be in place by 2013, he said. Once approved, it would operate on a voluntary basis until it is ratified by treaty states.
While existing rules bar tourists or tour operators from leaving anything behind - like garbage or human waste - and require protection of animal breeding grounds, there are no formal codes governing vessels that can use the waters or the kinds of fuel and oil products they carry.
The moves follow a huge growth in tourist traffic as people flock to see the world's last great wilderness.
The new code will reduce the number of ships carrying tourists into the region by requiring that all vessels have hulls strengthened to withstand sea ice. Officials and ship operators said a ban on heavy fuel oil will effectively shut out cruise ships.
Experts from among the 47 signatory nations to the Antarctic Treaty - the world's main tool for managing the continent - and the International Maritime Organization discussed plans to impose a mandatory Polar Code to control all shipping in the region at a meeting in the New Zealand capital, Wellington.
The safeguards are seen as necessary to limit accidents in the region, where blinding sleet, fog, high winds and treacherous seas pose major dangers for ships and huge problems for rescuers located thousands of kilometers from remote Antarctic waters.
The code will cover vessel design, safety equipment, ship operations and crew training for ice navigation, meeting chairman and New Zealand Antarctic policy specialist Trevor Hughes said.
The nearly completed Polar Code is expected to be in place by 2013, he said. Once approved, it would operate on a voluntary basis until it is ratified by treaty states.
While existing rules bar tourists or tour operators from leaving anything behind - like garbage or human waste - and require protection of animal breeding grounds, there are no formal codes governing vessels that can use the waters or the kinds of fuel and oil products they carry.
The moves follow a huge growth in tourist traffic as people flock to see the world's last great wilderness.
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