monitoring of entangled fur seals confirmed that entanglement is still a persistent problem, but it has halved in recent years. Trawling activities developing around Macquarie Island may affect the prey base of the primarily fish-eating Antarctic fur seals that breed on those islands. Recent work indicates that there is significant overlap between foraging areas and fisheries activities, suggesting a potential for competition for prey resources may exist. Leopard seals have been noted to take as many as a third of the Antarctic Fur Seal pups born at sites in the South Shetland Islands. Levels of predation may be high enough to cause a population decline at these sites. As well as the effects of hunting and fishing, the numbers of humans visiting the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic each year for tourism and scientific expeditions have risen. This increase in visits has led to greater interaction between the local fauna and humans. With this greater interaction comes the risk of affecting the territoriality of seals especially during the mating season. This can also increase the possibility of ‘exotic’ injuries to humans. In 2015 a man was rescued from a South Georgia Island by British Forces after receiving a serious bite from a fur seal. Due to the remote location of where these injuries occur, this can lead to complications in getting people to a physician with the relevant experience in treating exotic animal bites. This issue is compounded by the complexity of fur seal behavior and how serious a bite can be and the risk of transfer of diseases. The implication for Antarctic Fur Seals but this species is considered to be one of several pinnipeds at high risk of future disease outbreaks because of their tendency to congregate in large dense aggregations and the effect of environmental changes associated with global warming on the spread of diseases. Finally, the 19th century population bottleneck led to reduced genetic diversity, leaving it again more vulnerable to disease and stresses of climate change. In particular, the Antarctic fur seal's primary prey base, krill, could be reduced as a result of ocean acidification, or the distribution could be altered by climate change. Conservation status IUCN Conservation status: Least Concern. The species is protected by the governments in whose waters it resides (Australia, South Africa, France) and by the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals in waters south of 60° S. The animal is also