1991 saw the ninth successive United Nations (UN) discussion on the ‘Question of Antarctica.’ The adoption of two more resolutions critical of the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), including South African participation therein, reaffirmed the unchanging nature of the UN episode and the lack of consensus on the management of Antarctica. Key developments affecting Antarctica continue to occur away from New York: during 1990—91 the negotiations conducted at Vifia del Mar and Madrid for the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty (PREP) and the measures agreed at the Bonn Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting proved the point. The critics of the ATS were appeased by neither PREP and its mining prohibition nor the recent dismantling of the apartheid regime in South Africa.Two UN reports were published on the state of the Antarctic environment as well as the proposed establishment of a UNsponsored research station in Antarctica. One resolution adopted in December 1991 called for annual UN reports on the Antarctic environment, although fiscal and other considerations meant that the research station proposal was effectively shelved. Another resolution urged South African exclusion from ATS meetings. The tenth annual UN discussion on Antarctica is scheduled for the close of 1992. There exists growing evidence that the critical campaign is losing momentum, although it seems premature to anticipate Antarctica's imminent demise as an UN agenda topic.

Several Arctic and Antarctic historic sites have now been extensively excavated and some, such as the Scott and Shackleton huts in the Ross Dependency of Antarctica, have been restored and opened to visitors. The huts of Mawson's Australian Antarctic Expedition 1911–1914, the sole expedition site of the historic age in Australian Antarctic Territory, have become a tourist attraction and the subject of controversy. One view favours bringing the main hut back to Australia for display in a museum, on the grounds that the hut is deteriorating and at present inaccessible to the Australian people: repatriation would preserve the hut and enable it to be viewed by a greater number of visitors. An alternative is to preserve the hut on site by covering it with a dome or re-cladding, replacing the timbers which have been seriously eroded, and retaining the site (but not at present the hut interior) as a tourist feature. The author argues in favour of preservation on site, retaining as much of the original fabric of the huts as possible, and proposes the formation of an informal network to exchange information among other researchers studying polar historic sites.

On the basis of existing data on the dimensions, shape, surficial geology, and glaciological structure of ice island ARLIS-II, used in combination with aerial photographs of northernmost Ellesmere Island taken in 1950 and 1959, the source of the ice island is positively identified as the Alfred Ernest Ice Shelf. The duration of the recent drift of ‘Hobson's Choice’ ice island from the vicinity of the Alfred Ernest Ice Shelf to northern Ellef Ringnes Island, used as a model for the duration of the drift of ARLIS-II between the same points, suggests ARLIS-II broke off the ice shelf in approximately 1955.

Field research was carried out on Seal Island (60°59.5'S, 55°24.5'W), South Shetland Islands from 14 December 1989 to 27 February 1990. The main focus ofstudy was the ecology and population biology of Antarctic fur seals Arctocephalusgazella (Bengtson and others 1990a, b)and chinstrap Pygoscelis antarctica and macaroni Eudyptes chrysolophus penguins (Bengtson and others 1990a; Croll and others 1990). Analysis of stomach and fecal contents of live adult and sub-adult animals showed that krill were predominate in the diets of all three species, especially the penguins. Prey fed to penguin chicks by their parents contained 99% krill by weight. Thedietof fur seals varied from principally krill (62%), to fish (13%), to mixed krill and fish (25%). Traces of squid beaks were found in 15% of the fur seal stomach samples. Time-depth recorders and radio transm itters were attached to 14 fur seals, 10 macaroni penguins and 40 chinstrap penguins, to assess foraging behavior. Fur seals foraged at depths averaging 20—30 m, and the penguins 35–50 m. All three species swam to areas 11—100 km north of Seal Island to feed (water depths varied from 200 m to greater than 3000 m). These results are consistent with data collected in 1988 and 1989.

The first Finnish expedition to the Antarctic, made in 1988–89, included five men. The second, a year later, included 57, mostly researchers. Accidents that occurred during the expeditions were recorded by a medical doctor and their incidence rate and severity were estimated. The few accidents that occurred did not cause disability. Some 20 risk factors were evaluated from two questionnaires filled out during the journeys to and from Antarctica, using a scale from extremely safe to extremely unsafe. Working conditions were judged safer than had been expected, as were weather factors (wind, temperature, ice and snow circumstances). The most dangerous items identified, in order of importance, were moving along unmarked routes, weariness, unexpected dangers, hurry and tight schedules, and snow and ice. During the homeward journey, equipment for communication and for moving as well as personal equipment were judged more dangerous than had been expected in advance. Preparations for future expeditions should give more attention to these factors.

Data on the geographic distribution of native peoples of the Soviet North, published for the 1970and 1979 censuses (Tsentral'noyestatisticheskoye upravleniye SSSR 1973,1984), are summarized by administrative division and nationality for comparison with data for 1959, 1970 and 1979 given in Polar Record 20 (125): 169–70 (1980). Of the Chukchi, Dolgany, Eskimosy, Itel'meny, Koryaki, Mansi, Nganasany, Saamy, and Yakuty, more than 70% were reported to live within a single northern administrative division in 1979. More widely distributed were the Aleuty, Evenki, Eveny, Karely, Khanty, Sel'kupy and Yukagiry. The total population of northern native peoples was 915,096 in 1970 and 951, 471 in 1979.

The mixing characteristics of the existing surface wastewater discharge and a proposed submerged wastewater outfall at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, are compared. The wastewater is a combination of sanitary sewage and brine from a desalination plant. Dispersion from a proposed submerged (15 m-deep) outfall was simulated using the CORMIX1 computer model. The mixing characteristics of the surface discharge were estimated from visual observations and a conceptual analysis. The wastewater was found to be less dense than ambient seawater. From the submerged outfall, the effluent is predicted to be diluted by ratios ranging from 80:1 to 450:1 between the point of discharge and the point where the effluent plume begins to spread out underneath the sea ice. The variation in dilution depends mostly on tidal current speed, and dilution of the wastewater with desalinator brine is predicted to provide only minor reductions in concentrations of the effluent. The heat content of the discharge plume from a submerged outfall is expected to cause at least partial melting of the sea ice from underneath. A surface discharge provides much less mixing with ambient water before the effluent spreads along tidal cracks and underneath the sea ice. The submerged discharge is expected to confine settleable wastewater solids to a benthic area near the outfall, but a surface discharge allows solids to settle over a wider area.

This paper illustrates the manner in which inceased political and community interest in Antarctica is shifting the focus of Australian Antarctic research towards environmental management, creating tensions amongst bureaucrats and scientists as to programme priorities and funding allocations, and argues the existence of three distinct eras, each with particular chacteristics and orientation, but all reflecting political and scientific perspectives about Antarctic at the relevant time: (a) idosyncratic individualism in the ‘heroic age’ of Antarctic exploration 1890–1945; (b) hydra-headed science programmes within the Antarctic Treaty system 1945–1959–1990; and (c) prospective maturity management of the Antarctic environment in the post-CRAMRA era, 1990 onwards.