Short introduction to South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

The islands lie approximately 1,000 km east of the Falkland Islands. Grytviken, on South Georgia, was a 19th and early 20th century whaling station. The 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 station houses a small military garrison. The islands have large bird and seal populations and, recognizing the importance of preserving the marine stocks in adjacent waters, the UK, in 1993, extended the exclusive fishing zone from 12 miles to 200 miles around each island.

Source: World Factbook