The Island of South Georgia

A whaling station was established here in 1904. South Georgia is an island located in the Southern Antarctic Ocean.Well over half of the island is permanently covered with ice and snow. It is 3755 km2, stretching 170 km in length and ranges in width from 2-30km.

Described by many as an Alpine island, the landscape is characterised by high mountains, glacier rivers and lakes.Thirteen of the mountains have peaks reaching 2000 metres or more. The highest peak of all is "Mount Paget" which is 2943 metres high.

�THE POLITICS AND HISTORY OF THE ISLAND

The uninhabited island was discovered by the British merchant Antoine de la Roche in 1765. However, it is James Cook we mainly connect with the island as it was from his ship the first landing took place in 1775. The special wildlife is described in his reports with emphasise given to the large number of seals. It was just ten years later that the English started catching seals in this area. America and England both caught seals with oil as the main product. The catching of fur seals was also profitable.

After several expeditions had taken place in this area a whaling station was established in Gryteviken(also known as Cauldron Bay) in 1904. It was a Norwegian C. A. Larsen who led this project using Argentinian capital. During the next 15 years a number of landstations were established on South Georgia. Most of these were owned by companies operating from Vestfold in Norway. Concessions and taxes had to be paid to Britain who had sovereignty over the island.

South Georgia was a good starting point for scientific and research expeditions of the Antarctic. Ernest Shackleton is one of the many heroes connected to such expeditions.

British sovereignty of the island has never been recognised by Argentina. Since 1925 conflicts between the two countries have slowly increased, coming to a head in 1982 when Argentina invaded the island. After three weeks the Argentinean troops were thrown out by the British and sent home.

FAUNA

The key to all the fauna in this area is a small shrimp like plankton called "Krill". The masses of this plankton found are so enormous it is hard to imagine such large quantities. There are many species which feed on this plankton. As well as the large numbers of sea mammals such as seals and whales, there is a large bird community on South Georgia. Seabirds unheard of in our waters are found in large flocks. Large colonies of different species of penguins also inhabit the island. It is also a resting and breeding place for a large number of albatross. Large quantities of different fish species and krill are caught by fishing trawlers.

A special addition to the animal life was made when the whalers introduced a flock of wild reindeer to the island. The wild reindeer adapted well to their new environment and today are alive and flourishing with around 2000 animals. They have no natural predators on the island.

Rats came to the island with the first seal catchers. They are a threat to the birds as they eat their young and eggs. On a number of islands where the rats have not managed to inhabit, there is a higher concentration of bird life than on the main island.

Some of the plants found on the island are also found in Norway. Sixty species of weeds have been introduced to the island by man.

THE ISLAND AND WHALING

Whale catching was operated from a large numbers of landstations. Floating factory ships were also operating early in this area. The Scottish company Chr. Salvesen Ltd operated from Leith harbour, they also had a number of whaling catchers for their floating factory ships stationed there. We must also mention the company Argentina de Pesca. Both these companies used Norwegian crews and had the highest number of operative years . All whaling ceased from the island in 1965.

During the first years of catching it was the humpback whale which was in excess and caught. The Blue whale was mostly caught before 1940. It has to be mentioned that the largest whale ever caught was measured in Grytviken , it measured 33.58 m in length. (107 Norwegian feet). After the second world war it was the finnwhale which was hunted. These changes in catching were due to the fact that the populations of whales passing the island were hunted so intensively.