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poletopoleShip's Position at 12:00:
The great hope today is that we will see Shag Rocks, but the dense fog makes it unlikely that we will really want to do so as if we do get close enough to look at them it will probably be too late.
Another day of huge meals and lectures: three lecturers plus a briefing on South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
This includes a slick film produced by Her Majesty's Government Office administering those areas (but housed in Stanley, rather than Grytviken).
The whaling and sealing made a mess of the local ecosystem; it's not so much the whaling stations themselves as that the virtual extirpation of the whales (predator) here, as in the Arctic, left huge amounts of food (krill) available for smaller animals.
This seems to be behind the large numbers we now have of some seabirds — possibly more penguins than ever before — and behind the explosion in the fur seal population, which is now certainly larger than before hunting began and beginning to have a bad effect on the islands the seals land on for mating and pupping each year — the tussock is being trampled and destroyed, which deprives the albatross, cormorants, penguins, etc. of nesting habitat.
A conundrum.
People seem reluctant to manage the ecosystems which people have thrown out of whack; there is a fond illusion that nature will seek its own balance — and so it will, but you might not like where the balance settles.
- 53°12.1' S 44°02.9' W
- Course 100°; Speed 11 kts
- Air temperature 4°C; Water temperature 0°C
- Wind 16 kts Direction 340°
- Weather: Fog, Visibility 1-4
- Distance covered past 24 hours: 288 nautical miles
The great hope today is that we will see Shag Rocks, but the dense fog makes it unlikely that we will really want to do so as if we do get close enough to look at them it will probably be too late.
Another day of huge meals and lectures: three lecturers plus a briefing on South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
This includes a slick film produced by Her Majesty's Government Office administering those areas (but housed in Stanley, rather than Grytviken).
The whaling and sealing made a mess of the local ecosystem; it's not so much the whaling stations themselves as that the virtual extirpation of the whales (predator) here, as in the Arctic, left huge amounts of food (krill) available for smaller animals.
This seems to be behind the large numbers we now have of some seabirds — possibly more penguins than ever before — and behind the explosion in the fur seal population, which is now certainly larger than before hunting began and beginning to have a bad effect on the islands the seals land on for mating and pupping each year — the tussock is being trampled and destroyed, which deprives the albatross, cormorants, penguins, etc. of nesting habitat.
A conundrum.
People seem reluctant to manage the ecosystems which people have thrown out of whack; there is a fond illusion that nature will seek its own balance — and so it will, but you might not like where the balance settles.
