Should tourists be banned from Antarctica?

Go and look but stay on the boat. Don't throw trash or food in the water. It isn't cute and is actually harmful. Penguins and other native species don't naturally eat white bread and bologna.

Antarctica is not a Tourist attraction in my view, PFC David Foster ... I say leave it to the Scientists and Engineers and let the Penguins and other native species have it all to themselves!!! Leave it as unspoiled by humans as possible!

Antarctic tourism is really a niche for the rich. A cruise boat dumping passengers on some rocks isn't real tourism. That said, the costs are high and much higher when something goes wrong. Permission to come to McMurdo was invariably denied because it'd risk my life to do a SAR. Still there were those who just came with some getting into trouble. There is better clothing, navigation, communication, and transportation than I had back in the day. That doesn't make it inherently safe. Most of the far SARs I had to do related to the clueless, the amateurs, and the pros who made just one wrong assumption.