Why isn’t the Inventory supported more substantially by other Antarctic Treaty countries? Why is public support necessary?
Governments are reluctant to fund assessment and monitoring projects for the simple reason that, to succeed, these projects need to operate over long time frames, rather than in the more immediate “present.” Governments rarely fund multiyear efforts that have no ascertainable end date, and which rely on retrospective data comparisons and analyses. In other words, projects that approach work in terms of geologic time don’t sit well with bureaucrats and budget analysts. That said, when the Inventory began in 1994, there was start-up funding from the US National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs. In part, this related to concerns at that time about the potential impacts of tourism. Over time, there also has been occasional support from the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Marine Mammal Commission. Oceanites continues nurturing governmental support for long-term monitoring of key Antarctic Peninsula sites, which it intends to begin in the 2003-04 season, and for it
