South Georgia and the Islands

Overview

South Georgia has an incredibly low population and the South Sandwich Islands are entirely uninhabited. The visitor needs to be aware that there is no where for them to stay on the islands; they must sleep in the ship that they ventured over on. The landscape certainly requires full preparation, but those that manage to get here will find a country barely impinged upon by humans.

There are two mountain ranges, the Allardyce and Salvesen and depending on the time of year, glaciers and vast snowfields that regularly reach the sea. Shackleton made a journey across the island, a route that is a popular test for people today, recreating that part of his endeavour.

The Seat of Government is at King Edward Point and the site of the Fishery Research base. There are buildings at Grytviken which used to be whaling stations and at Bird Island the British Antarctic Survey is doing long term research. Although on land, wildlife is not especially prevalent, there are two herds of reindeer, but the 30 million sea birds and 3 million seal might make up for this.

History

The islands lie approximately 1,000 km east of the Falkland Islands and have been under British administration since 1908, except for a brief period in 1982 when Argentina occupied them. Grytviken, on South Georgia, was a 19th and early 20th century whaling station. Famed explorer Ernest SHACKLETON stopped there in 1914 en route to his ill-fated attempt to cross Antarctica on foot. He returned some 20 months later with a few companions in a small boat and arranged a successful rescue for the rest of his crew, stranded off the Antarctic Peninsula. He died in 1922 on a subsequent expedition and is buried in Grytviken. Today, the station houses scientists from the British Antarctic Survey.

The islands have large bird and seal populations, and, recognizing the importance of preserving the marine stocks in adjacent waters, the UK, in 1993, extended the exclusive fishing zone from 12 nm to 200 nm around each island.