Threats To Antarctica
Giorgia Laird, Holly Adams, Prao Vikitsreth, Ella Chambers, EmmaJane Littler
Threats to Antarctica
Antarctica has a brutal climate; it is the coldest, windiest, most deserted place on earth. Due to the continent’s inhospitality, only select species can live there, including phytoplankton, krill and squid at the bottom of the food web, and killer whales, blue whales and seals at the top, and it is also home to penguins, and several types of fish.
However this harsh environment is also considered fragile, because it is so untouched by humans. It is also predominantly made up of ice, so is greatly susceptible to global warming.
In the late 1990s, the Patagonian toothfish was designated a threatened species.
Before the 1990s, few people had heard of the Patagonian toothfish. But in the 1990s, it became a popular dish at restaurants. To make it sound appealing to customers, it was renamed the Chilean sea bass, even though most are not caught near Chile, The Patagonian toothfish became so popular during the 1990s that it was getting harder for fishermen to find any. Patagonian Toothfish is caught predominantly by longline in deep waters in the remote
Southern Ocean. Small amounts of fish are also caught by trawl, though increasingly this method is used only for scientific surveying. Patagonian Toothfish are thought to live up to 50 years and can grow as large as 2m and over 100kg, though commonly caught at around 4-7kg.
The result has been that there is a great rise in popularity and a demand that far exceeds the set quotas. As it commands a premium price in restaurants, then there are plenty of more than willing fishermen who are prepared to illegally fish for it. It is generally caught in the sub
Antarctic.
The illegal fishing of the Patagonian toothfish is of concern because it has the potential to undermine attempts to manage the stock as a sustainable resource. management is also made difficult as it is traded under different names in different
Threats to Antarctica
Antarctica has a brutal climate; it is the coldest, windiest, most deserted place on earth. Due to the continent’s inhospitality, only select species can live there, including phytoplankton, krill and squid at the bottom of the food web, and killer whales, blue whales and seals at the top, and it is also home to penguins, and several types of fish.
However this harsh environment is also considered fragile, because it is so untouched by humans. It is also predominantly made up of ice, so is greatly susceptible to global warming.
In the late 1990s, the Patagonian toothfish was designated a threatened species.
Before the 1990s, few people had heard of the Patagonian toothfish. But in the 1990s, it became a popular dish at restaurants. To make it sound appealing to customers, it was renamed the Chilean sea bass, even though most are not caught near Chile, The Patagonian toothfish became so popular during the 1990s that it was getting harder for fishermen to find any. Patagonian Toothfish is caught predominantly by longline in deep waters in the remote
Southern Ocean. Small amounts of fish are also caught by trawl, though increasingly this method is used only for scientific surveying. Patagonian Toothfish are thought to live up to 50 years and can grow as large as 2m and over 100kg, though commonly caught at around 4-7kg.
The result has been that there is a great rise in popularity and a demand that far exceeds the set quotas. As it commands a premium price in restaurants, then there are plenty of more than willing fishermen who are prepared to illegally fish for it. It is generally caught in the sub
Antarctic.
The illegal fishing of the Patagonian toothfish is of concern because it has the potential to undermine attempts to manage the stock as a sustainable resource. management is also made difficult as it is traded under different names in different