In the past, the wildlife of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands was seriously depleted by overexploitation, mostly in the form of whaling. The Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project and its partners are exploring the feasibility of enhancing marine protections in the waters around South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
Forming part of the Antarctic ecosystem, the rich waters are full of plankton and krill which support one of the largest and most varied populations of seabirds and marine mammals on earth. Overall, they have a higher diversity of species than the more temperate Galapagos Islands.
The islands, a British overseas territory, provide habitat for more than four million Antarctic fur seals—more than 95 percent of the world’s population—and more than half of the world’s southern elephant seals. Sperm, humpback, and other whale species are also frequently seen in the islands’ waters.
South Georgia has as many as 100 million seabirds, including vast numbers of penguins, albatross, prions, and petrels. The Antarctic’s only songbird, the South Georgia pipit, of which only 6,000 remain, is found only on that island. The continued existence of this species is threatened by the spread of introduced rats on South Georgia. Zavodovski Island in the South Sandwich Islands has more than one million chinstrap penguins, the largest colony in the world.
The South Sandwich Islands have no permanent inhabitants, while South Georgia has a transitory population of scientists, government officials and military personnel. Both are mountainous and capped by glaciers. Volcanic in origin, the islands are surrounded by nutrient-rich waters. The South Sandwich Trench, which at more than eight kilometers (five miles) is one of the deepest parts of the ocean, includes thermal vents which are yet to be fully explored.
Captain James Cook, a Briton, first landed on South Georgia in 1775. In the early 20th century, it was the destination of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s epic mission to save the crew of his ship, the Endurance. In 1916, after an 800-mile voyage in a lifeboat, he reached South Georgia. Crossing its ice cap on foot, he famously remarked: “We had seen God in His splendours, heard the text that Nature renders. We had reached the naked soul of man.”
The Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project is calling for enhanced protection of this spectacular region.
The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Bertarelli Foundation joined forces in 2017 to create the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project. This effort builds on a decade of work by both organizations to protect the ocean. Pew’s Global Ocean Legacy initiative, established in 2006, helped obtain commitments to safeguard more than 6.3 million square kilometers (2.4 million square miles) of ocean by working with philanthropic partners, indigenous groups, community leaders, government officials, and scientists. Since 2010, the Bertarelli Foundation has worked to create marine protected areas around the globe and simultaneously advance our understanding of marine science.