ABSTRACT
By 1983, the Antarctic Treaty group's deliberations on fishing and minerals were giving concrete meaning to the age-old dream of Antarctic riches. Krill fishing expanded season by season, and although no decision had been made to explore for Antarctic minerals, let alone to exploit them, the environmental impact of minerals development was a matter of intense debate. Thus, indirectly, the new resource diplomacy called attention to the beauty and uniqueness of the vast white continent and its value as an environmental preserve. The negotiations were having practical side effects: They burdened the underfunded, nongovernmental Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), which the treaty group leaned on increasingly for expert advice; they transformed the programs of several nations by incorporating resource-related work; and finally, they brought Antarctica to the attention of the developing world—a political shift whose consequences were still unknown. Regardless of whether the dream of Antarctic riches ever came true, a new era in Antarctic diplomacy had begun.
