SOUTH GEORGIA AND SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS
(Territory of the United Kingdom)
Capital | Grytviken
Population | no indigenous inhabitants
*note: the small military garrison on South Georgia withdrew in March 2001 replaced by a permanent group of scientists of the British Antarctic Survey, which also has a biological station on Bird Island; the South Sandwich Islands are uninhabited.
Area | 3,903 SQ KM
*note: includes Shag Rocks, Black Rock, Clerke Rocks, South Georgia Island, Bird Island, and the South Sandwich Islands, which consist of 11 islands
Time Zone | UTC -2
Official Language | English
Background | 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 Island houses scientists from the British Antarctic Survey. 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. South Georgia’s population may drop to as low as 10 during the long Antarctic winter, but there are two to three million seals, a similar number of penguins and 50 million birds, including a large portion of the world’s albatrosses.