Please note that final assignment is subject to the student qualifying for FWS Placement. If a student is allowed to work without having a FWS Referral Form signed by all parties and on file in this office, your department will be responsible for compensating the student.
Antarctica is considered a desert, with annual precipitation of only 200 mm (8 inches) along the coast and far less inland. Only cold-adapted organisms survive there, including many types of algae, animals (for example mites, nematodes, penguins, seals and tardigrades), bacteria, fungi, plants, and protista.
According to the Antarctic Connection, seals were the first species of animal to be commercially harvested in the Antarctic. Humans hunted seals almost to the point of extinction in the 19th and 20th centuries for their meat, oil and pelts.