Deeply distasteful — sex cruises to Antarctica set to hasten degradation of Earth’s last great wilderness

There’s nothing illegal about spending $12,000 for 12 days on a swinging sociability Seabourn cruise ship that offers “adult-oriented activities”.

However, going on a full-scale bonkathon on a luxury liner while watching penguins and whales in Antarctica or exploring the seabed as you snuggle up close in a bubble submarine is another issue entirely. It foregrounds a question about bucket-list tourism — or tourism of any sort — to the white continent.

Are the naked guests with revved-up hormones soaking in a heated deck pool at all interested in being in such a pristine place? Will they take home the message that we need to bring down CO2 levels to stop the Antarctic from melting and drowning our coastal cities? It seems unlikely.

The tours are offered by Luxury Lifestyle Vacations (LLV) which mounts cruises to Antarctica with “high-end amenities with adult-oriented activities tailored for open-minded couples and singles.”

IAATO, the body governing tourism in Antarctica, predicted that in 2024 visitors to the frozen continent would exceed 100,000 for the first time. Considering that tourists numbered just a few hundred three decades ago, it’s an increase more befitting a theme park, not a science reserve.

Most cruise ships project their tours as raising awareness about Antarctica and its problems. Guest lecturers guide tours and explain the sights to “citizen scientists” gazing over the guardrails.

Most tourist vessels will provide accommodation and platforms for research. It’s part of their social licence, operating in fragile and rarely visited parts of the globe. This is an important consideration for worldly tourists looking to absolve their well-founded concerns about the places being visited. People learn and spread the message: protect this fragile continent. It’s also a gift to the marketing of these trips.

Learning is intense

LLV cruises are something else. This is not secret Ashley Madison-style trysting — it’s an in-your-face sex romp with talks and instructions on how to get it off with friends and strangers alike. It’s not citizen science, but learning is intense.

There are eco talks aboard the Seabourn Pursuit, but they’re sandwiched between seminars and events that include smart erotica: foundations of ethical non-monogamy, mastering the art of passionate positions, tantra kink, speed dating (a daily event), lingerie and boxers, sexy yoga, desire unleashed, the sacred slut, fetish, black lace, latex or leather, black feathers, crops or paddles, passion with red hot outfits, temple of pleasure, the art of squirting and bellydance for beginners. There’s a 24-hour “playroom” for erotic fantasy.

Antarctica is one of the last great wildernesses on Earth and its biggest desert. It’s fragile, dangerous and vital to the planet’s health. Under the Antarctic Treaty it has been preserved as a place of scientific and ecological importance. For decades it was visited only by scientists and those who built the bases and ran the transport systems.

Travellers are generally drawn to Antarctica for other reasons: the wildlife, the scenery, the sense of adventure and the overwhelming silence. The Norwegian explorer Erling Kagge called it “the quietest place I have ever been”. All of these attractions are getting harder to find in the rest of the world. They’re disappearing in Antarctica too.

Many sightseers bring a whiff of “last-chance tourism”, a desire to see a place before it’s gone, even if that means helping hasten its disappearance. Travel companies are scrambling to add capacity.

Traveling to Antarctica is a carbon-intensive activity. Flights and cruises must cross thousands of kilometres in extreme conditions, contributing to the climate change that is causing ice loss and threatening whales, seals and penguins. Tourists risk introducing invasive species and microbes, which can disrupt ecosystems already under strain from climate change.

In 2024, more than 100,000 tourists in 50 cruise ships visited Antarctica. Such tourism has a disproportionately high carbon footprint because of the continent’s remoteness and reliance on long-distance travel and fuel-intensive ships. Soot from ship engines accelerates snow melting, while hiking damages flora that take decades to regrow in the harsh climate.

The international community has banned mining on the continent, and ships aren’t allowed to use heavy fuel oil in its waters. Yet tourism is only loosely controlled.

Cruise ships are responsible for most of the carbon emissions associated with Antarctic tourism. About 70% of emissions come from ship travel, with an average trip generating 5.44 tonnes of CO2 per passenger.

By one estimate, the carbon footprint for a person’s Antarctic cruise is roughly equivalent to the average European’s output for a year, because cruise ships are heavy polluters and tourists have to fly so far to get to them. An overnight stay on a cruise ship uses 12 times more energy than a hotel stay.

Cruise ships also emit significant amounts of other air pollutants, including sulphur oxides and particulate matter, which contribute to acid rain and harm marine ecosystems. The industry also faces criticism for dumping sewage and wastewater, despite the installation of advanced treatment systems.

Weak controls

All activities in Antarctica are regulated through the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), which includes the Madrid Protocol that provides broad rules for tourism. But neither the treaty nor the protocol have policing capabilities, so day-to-day management is mostly self-regulated by the industry.

These regulations do not adequately protect the environment of Antarctica from tourism impacts, which include damage at visitor sites and along travel routes and the disturbance of wildlife. Research has shown that tourist activities are causing penguin species to change their reproductive and social behaviours.

Some argue that tourists become ambassadors for the continent — for its protection and for environmental change. That’s laudable, but unsupported by research, which has shown that in many cases Antarctic tourists become ambassadors for more tourism.

Accidents also have a way of happening despite the best intentions. In 2007, the MS Explorer, a 250-foot expedition cruise ship, sank near penguin breeding grounds on the South Shetland Islands, leaving behind a wreck and a 2km-long oil slick. Most cruise ships are registered in “flag-convenient” countries that are lax on oversight.

According to Tim Stephens, a professor at the University of Sydney who specialises in international law, “If you have a cruise ship going down in Antarctica, it’s not going to be the same seriousness as the Exxon Valdez. But it’s not going to be pretty.”

In an article in The Atlantic entitled The Last Place on Earth Any Tourist Should Go, Sarah Clemens criticised the trend towards overtourism in Antarctica:

“Antarctica, designated as a global commons, is different from any other place on Earth. It’s less like a too-crowded national park and more like the moon, or the geographical equivalent of an uncontacted people. It is singular and in its relative wildness and silence, it is the last of its kind. And because Antarctica is different, we should treat it differently: Let the last relatively untouched landscape stay that way.”

Swingers requiring penguins, albatrosses, seals and ice to stimulate their swing at the cost of the environment they’re visiting seems somehow deeply distasteful. But under the current treaty system, it’s unstoppable. DM