Technically, the British territory abroad, 20 miles long, 20 miles wide is uninhabited.
Only a few guest scientists and inspectors of government fisheries occupy the island all year round.
But from the point of view of fauna, that’s anything but.
Its banks are home to the greatest number of seabirds and mammals on the planet.
The impact of the world’s largest iceberg
Being 800 miles east of the Falkland Islands and a thousand kilometers north of AntarcticIt is one of the few fragments of land between this vast frozen continent and the rest of the world.
The part of the South Atlantic in which it is located is one of the oceans richest in the world in the world, powered by powerful circulating currents, and it is full of antarctic Krill in the shape of shrimp.
“Krill nourishes the blue whales, humpback whales, fins. He also nourishes the gentoo Penguins, Macaroni penguins, Chinstrap penguins and fur seals”, explains Martin Collins, a scientist with the British Antarctic statement, and the former Government of South Georgia to King Edward Point, on the island.
The island also has some of the most important and most important populations of elephant seals, royal penguins and several species of albatross and petrel – the most resistant sea birds.
The island made the headlines after The largest iceberg in the world, A23A, failed Off its southwest coast.
Concern concerning the impact of the iceberg on the fauna of the island
There is a concern that could have an impact on fauna on the island – but the timing is fortuitous, explains Mr. Collins.
“This is the end of the breeding season now, which means that the impacts on penguins in this part of the island will be reduced.
“There can be a little impact, especially on the Gentoo penguins, which still feed around the island during the winter.”
From a wider point of conservation point of conservation, southern Georgia is one of the stories of world success.
Until the 1960s, it was a major hub for whale hunting. Thousands of whales have been captured off its coast and transformed in a number of whale stations – the massacre scale so that the bays around the island were red with whale blood.
The whalers introduced the reindeer of food that nibbled and trampled on the unique vegetable life which supported many wild animals endemic to the island.
Interrupted rats have looted the eggs and chicks of penguins and other Moulus nesting birds (there are no trees).
Whales that come back in large numbers
The Southern Georgia Pipit, the southernmost singer bird in the world, was taken to the edge of the extinction.
But before the abandoned whale hunting stations even rushed, the whales began to return to southern Georgia in large numbers.
A breathtaking poisoned bait campaign through the inaccessible island has eradicated rats and pips are booming.
The seas around the southern Georgia were once strongly caught. The worst for fauna was long -term ships trying to hang on the Chilean Sea with high value.
Call for a pure and simple prohibition to fish
Albatros and Petrels would plunge for bait and were captured and drowned.
Since 2012, the Southern Georgia government and the South Sandwich Islands have monitored an area of 500,000 square miles protected in the islands where most fishermen are now prohibited.
Some ships are allowed to catch krill and shrimp gollet, but only in winter when most of the predators are absent and under strict controls.
Some environmentalists call for fishing to be prohibited.
However, the Government of South Georgia maintains that it is income from limited fishing licenses that allows them to protect and monitor the exclusion zone.
Crucial at a time when funding from the central government is rare and unlikely to increase.
The key threat is now the rapidly evolving climate around South Georgia.
“It is proven that the distribution of Krill moves a little further south gradually over time,” explains Mr. Collins.
“We must be really aware of this changing climate.”
But it is also optimistic. Despite warmer oceans, the number of certain species is booming. Especially whales and fur seals.
“I just had two royal penguins passing in front of the windows while we are talking,” he said.
“When I came here in the late 1990s, there was no fur seal in this area. And now they are everywhere around us”.
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