Train Oil and Snotters: Eating Antarctic Wild Foods

Abstract

People may no longer eat the wild foods of Antarctica, because the Antarctic Treaty9s Protocol on Environmental Protection signed in 1991 prohibits even "disturbing" any wildlife, but there is a long history of living off the land in Antarctica and on the remote islands of the Southern Ocean. Visitors regularly ate seals, penguins and other seabirds, eggs, shellfish, and several unusual endemic plants. Fresh food was critical in avoiding scurvy, caused by a lack of Vitamin C. Local foods also occupied a prominent place on the table during Antarctic holidays such as Midwinter9s Day.