In for the krill off the Falklands

Press, 18 September 1976, Page 10

In for the krill off the Falklands

By

PAUL CHEESRIGHT and HUGH O’SHAUGHNESSY

in the

“Financial Times,” London

Long standing business and political neglect of the Antarctic and its surrounding seas is unlikely to continue much longer. Two events recently show why that should be so. In London Lord Shackleton published the report which the Foreign and Commonwealth Office commissioned from him about the economic future of the Falkland Islands. It stated that there were immense fishing resources in the region, and

possibly deposits of hydrocarbons comparable in some ways to those of the North Sea. Earlier in July, a meeting of the signatories of the Antarctic Treaty in Paris pointed to the i” creasing need for an international regime to regulate the economic exploitation of Antarctica’s natural resources at a time when incentives to press ahead with this exploitation are growing. Of all the resources of the Falklands the fisheries are the most exciting. In the waters of the Falklands region there are to be harvested, according to Shackleton, one million tons a year of blue whiting, the fish which could become a substitute on British table for Icelandic cod, as well as an abundance of othe r fish, from Antarctic cod to hake which would be immediately acceptable to the British housewife. But by far the biggest potential resource is krill, a shrimp-like animal about 4 ems long which is 16 per cent protein. The British territory of South Georg'a is in the centre of the concentration of krill which scientists have described as the largest untapped source of protein le f t in the world. It is conservatively estimated that 150 M tons a year of krill, or more than twice the whole world’s fisheries landings, could be taken from the waters around South Georgia. The problem is that no market has yet been developed for krill. For human consumption it would probably have to be rendered into a paste and textured and flavoured by the food technologists. Alternatively

it could be used more wastefully for anima] feed. Soviet and Japanese fleets are fishing for krill and other countries taking an active interest -include West Germany, Poland, Taiwan, and Norway. The Russians are believed to have taken nearly 500,000 tons of fish and krill in their most successful fishing season. The Germans are confident that with powerful boats they can take 300 tons a day per boat of krill.

In Britain the South Atlantic fishery prospects in general and those for krill in particular are the subject of heated debate. The majority opinion in the trawling and processing industries is that the South Atlantic is- too far away, coupled with the fact that there is still much fish to be caught in the North Atlantic. Though the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food says that it is keeping an open mind, the answer given in May by Mr E. S. Bishop, a junior Minister in the Ministry, to a Parliamentary question shows that it is substantially aligned with the industry. “All the evidence,” Mr Bishop commented, "is that this area (the South Atlantic) is unlikely to provide the domestic British industry with viable fishing opportunities.” These attitudes anger some of the scientists and a few of the trawler owners. Their argument is that Britain should capitalise on the decades of scientific work put in by the British Antarctic Survey and its predecessors which has given Britain a strong position in the region. The logistics and marketing difficulties should be overcome, and Britain should start to harness its scientific know-how to the exploitation of krill, if necessary finding foreign crews and foreign markets in the hungrier developing countries. At the very least it is argued that Britain should maintain its options and think forward to the possibility of swapping fishing rights in the South Atlantic for rights nearer the British

Isles, The next two or three years will show which view will prevail.

While the krill and fish battle is being fought out in the Whitehall Ministries and the Boardroom of Hull and Grimsby the potential of Falkland oil is being assessed. No one disputes that the amount of oil that could : be found in the waters around the Falklands could be very great. The United States Government’s Geological Survey suggests that 200 billion barrels could be contained in the whole Patagonian offshore area. Shackleton vigorously disputes that as being based on nothing more than “a series of enormous hypothetical assumptions.’’ '

He does however say that in the Malvinas Basin there are sedimentary thicknesses of up to 34 km, comparable with many areas of the North Sea. Contrary to popular belief the climatic con--ditions are no worse and possibly better than in the North Sea. In an intriguing comment on the social impact of any oil find Shackleton suggests that if 200,000 barrels of oil were to be produced daily the income of the 2000 Falklanders could reach $22,000 each a

year or twice that of Kuwait.

Given the financial will and assured markets, these resources could be exploited within the next few years. That is not the case for the minerals that lie in Antarctica and offshore, south of 60 degrees. Despite the scientific research effort during the last 20 years, knowledge of the quality and quantity of these mineral resources is scanty. But enough is known of the problems involved in discovery and development to suggest that only the next generation or the one after that will want to exploit thorn.

The existence of the minerals has been established. Scientists . have made what the United States Geological Survey calls “a theoretical geologic reconstruction of the ancient relationship of the major geologic provinces of Antarctica to comparable ones in the adjacent continental masses of South America, Africa, India, and -Australia.”

This leads to the assumption that the physical and chemical process which caused mineral formations took place in Antarctica, before it separated from an

ancient continent. At the same time surveys on the ground and offshore have revealed the presence of minerals.

The discoveries have not so far revealed deposits rich enough to be classified as commercially exploitable in present day terms. Copper, gold, silver, molybdenum, chromium, nickel, and cobalt have all been found. Soviet geologists think there might be major deposits of iron ore on the strength of their research.

Offshore there are manganese nodules, although these are thought to be less rich in metals than nodules found nearer the Equator. There have been indications of gas and oil offshore, but onshore the fractured nature of the sedimentary rocks suggests that oil and gas may not have been preserved.

The great problem about Antarctic minerals and research into their extent is the ice-cap which covers 98 per cent of the continent and is up to one mile thick. But technologically, the work in the northern polar regions, and the existence of lead-zinc mines on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic and in Greenland, show that

the threshold is being pushed further and further. There seems little doubt that mining and oil extraction could be extended to the Antarctic if the commercial desire was strong enough. For the moment this is unlikely. The cost is too great as long as natural resources are more easily available in gentler climes. But these factors have not prevented some companies applying to explore offshore to the British and New Zealand Governments, both of which have sectors of Antarctica.

Large companies have generally been deterred from keeping much more than a watching brief in the area by the distance of the continent from major markets and the political uncertainty involving areas of disputed sovereignty. No licences have been given, and none are likely to be until some form of regime for the control of the continent’s exploitation has been worked out by the Antarctic Treaty powers. It is this contentious subject that officials from the 12 nations involved have been tackling during a recent meeting in Paris.