Desarrollo de la Antártica

EL DESARROLLO DE LA ANTÁRTICA projected settlement. We carried out a feasibility study on the idea and the further we went the less crazy it appeared. The fact that finally made us abandon the proposal was that the depllh of water over the continental shelf along that coast is too shallow to permit an iceberg of any useful silZe to be towed close enough to the shore. In the last three years the idea has again been raised. A committee set up by the Australian Academy of Science is carrying out theore· tical studies of aspects of the idea and it appears at thi.!) stage to be wor1Jh pursuing. This year 1 read of a suggestion Ilhat icebergs m'ight be towed to the coast of the Red Sea to provide irrigation water for an Arab nation. To me it would appear more practicable to tow icebergs to the coast of Peru with tihe assistance of the Humboldt current. Icebergs remain one possible resource of Antarctica that might turn out td he of future value. The idea must not be dismissed as utterly impracticable. FOOD RESOURCES The food resources of the Southern Ocean will certainly one day become important to mankind. For various reasons the lAntarctic Seas produce more abundant marine life than do either tropical or temperate waters. This life occurs mainly in the form of plankton, demersal and pelagic fish being relatively scarce in comparison with warmer waters. Apart from a kind of rook. cod and similar bottom– feeding fish which are found close to the racky shores of the Antarc– tic Oontinent, the most common marine species of any size are the cephalopods which occur in vast numbers, mainly as squid. These squid forro the chief diet of seals, toothed whales, albatrosses and giant petrels, and in Ilhe stomachs of Antarctic seals and seabirds one commonly finds numerous cephalopod beaks. Their abundance is not usually recognized, for they approadh the surface only at night and can swim fast enough to avoid Illets and trawIs. However, 1 have seen the surface of the sea at night so closely packed with phosphorescent squid that it would have been impossible to plunge a spear down into it without impaling many of them. The llooplankton of Antarctic waters comprise a variety of small creatures ranging from jellyfisih, prawns and euphausids, down to dny arrow worms and copepods. These planktonic animals drift around witlh the ocean currents, mostly approaching tibe surface at night and sinking deeper during the day. Their distribution in