Prion Island and Elsehul Bay, South Georgia
Today, we explored the north western region of South Georgia. Our morning was spent in the Bay of Isles, which contains many islets that are free of rats. This makes the region very important for some of the smaller breeding birds, such as burrowing prions and white-chinned petrels, as well as the only songbird found in Antarctica…the rare South Georgia pipit.
All the islands in the bay are part of a specially protected nature reserve, and it is the best area of South Georgia to see wandering albatrosses. We landed on Prion Island in hopes of seeing some of them on their nests, and we were not disappointed. These incredible birds are very impressive, because they have the largest wingspan of any living species (upwards to 12 feet or 3.6 meters). They lay a single egg in November or December, which hatches after about 2.5 months, and the hatchlings then must be cared for in the nest throughout the long winter before fledging more than a year later the following Summer. Wandering albatrosses are known to fly incredible distances between their nesting sites here in South Georgia and their feeding grounds off eastern South America, so it understandably takes a lot of effort to raise the single chick. It’s no wonder they only breed every other year. We saw about a dozen individuals on nests, most probably still on eggs that were soon to hatch. There are now about 4,300 nesting pairs in South Georgia, but sadly their population has declined in recent decades because of the danger of long line fishing boats that operate in their feeding grounds...many birds follow the boats and become hooked when they try to grab the baits as the lines are set out, and are subsequently drowned. In addition to the albatrosses, we managed to see most of the other species known to inhabit or visit the island, including giant petrels, gentoo, king, and chinstrap penguins, elephant seals, lots and lots of fur seals, and…the rare South Georgia pipit! See Figure A.
In the mid-afternoon, our vessel entered a small, protected bay known as Elsehul. This bay contains the largest Antarctic fur seal colony in the world and is home to virtually all the species of breeding birds found in South Georgia. Elsehul is important in the history of sealing, because it was the center of operations which goes back nearly to the time of Captain Cook, during his second voyage around the world. Cook claimed the island in 1775 and named it for King George III, but felt the island had little value even as he noted the mind-boggling abundance of fur seals. This news quickly brought sealers to the island, and within 25 years the unimaginable numbers of fur seals were virtually wiped out. The sealers then had to search farther afield to find other populations and quickly discovered the remaining Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic islands, and eventually Antarctica itself in 1820. The Antarctic fur seal was thought to be extinct as recently as the 1920s. It wasn’t, and the few survivors set in motion an incredible population explosion that has now reached perhaps three million individuals.
We offered both a landing in order to climb a steep hillside for a view of nesting grey-headed albatrosses and Zodiac cruises to enjoy the wildlife along the shoreside and cliff faces. In the Zodiacs, everyone had smiles on their faces as they watched the incredibly appealing fur seal pups frolicking in the shallows, playing with each other, and chasing our boats (see Figure B). We couldn’t help but wonder what the future holds in store for them.
