Deception Island
Just because you're in the most remote place on Earth doesn't mean you can't support a few industries. True, Antarctica has seen fewer than most continents, but it has been the source of commercial activity since shortly after it was discovered in the late 1700's. Sealers were the first, sailing south each summer to harvest the many fur seals found on these southern shores. They were so thorough at their job that fur seals were commercially extinct within 50 years. The whalers were next and took almost twice as long to wipe out their livelihoods. Left behind was a tangible legacy of their industry and in shore stations such as this one, a visitor can wander through a veritable forest of whale-oil tanks, their decaying metal rusting with slow certainty. Today, we are the big industry in the Last Continent; tourism in the far south is burgeoning. We come to see the icebergs, the penguins, and the relics of the people who have been here before us.
Just because you're in the most remote place on Earth doesn't mean you can't support a few industries. True, Antarctica has seen fewer than most continents, but it has been the source of commercial activity since shortly after it was discovered in the late 1700's. Sealers were the first, sailing south each summer to harvest the many fur seals found on these southern shores. They were so thorough at their job that fur seals were commercially extinct within 50 years. The whalers were next and took almost twice as long to wipe out their livelihoods. Left behind was a tangible legacy of their industry and in shore stations such as this one, a visitor can wander through a veritable forest of whale-oil tanks, their decaying metal rusting with slow certainty. Today, we are the big industry in the Last Continent; tourism in the far south is burgeoning. We come to see the icebergs, the penguins, and the relics of the people who have been here before us.
