To many of us, just hearing the names of those places is enough to freeze and start to dream about what is the most extra-terrestrial place on Earth. Beyond the Roaring 50s, here is a world of the wildest beauty. Gigantic mountains covered in thick glaciers plunge deep into the waters where three Oceans meets. On some beaches, hundred of thousands of penguins compete with seals for some space to breed or molt. Offshore, giant albatrosses glide, seemingly effortless, brushing from time to time the tip of their wings against the waves, surfing from one ridge to another. Whales come to feed on krill, krill thrives and sea birds follow just behind, ubiquitous, as numerous as stars in a moonless night.

But as far and hostile the place can be, humans have also been coming here for a long time to plunder its ressources. The whaling industry has brought many species close to extinction before all the whales got officially protected in the 80s. Overfishing is now a serious issue, especially for the Austral toothfish or the krill, at the base of the whole food web. Besides, the number of tourists landing in Antarctica has gone from about 6,600 in 1992 to over 33,000 in 2007. But there are also reasons to believe in a better management of the Antarctic resources, thanks to the Antartic Treaty dedicating the continent to peace and science, or the efforts of the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO) who deals with tourism activity in this very fragile environment. However, a much more complicated matter to deal with is global warming, and all the ongoing conservation programs prove powerless against its effects. Some species, like the Adélie penguin or the emperor penguin have already started a dramatic demographic decline.