A world 1,400 kilometers away from life
One of the most isolated locations on the planet is South Georgia, a rocky region with fjords, mountains, and glaciers.
As we carefully stepped out of our Zodiac and into the roaring surf at Stromness Bay, South Georgia. Expedition leader Nate Small. Cautioned us to stay at least 200 meters away from the whaling station because it is full with asbestos and the roofs may literally blow off.
I took a cautious approach across the grey-pebble beach. Keeping a close eye on the snarling fur seals and sleeping elephant seals. Whose enormous bodies were making a cacophony of bellows, burps, and rumbling bass notes.
A collection of rusted, ramshackle, corrugated-iron buildings stood at the far end of the bay. Encircled by bog area and backed by a mountain range.
Large portions of the walls and roofs were gone. And the ones that were left shook constantly in the wind that was almost gale force. It appeared as though a natural catastrophe had occurred.
With my limbs numb from the below-freezing temperatures kilometers away from life. I halted at a sign that read “Asbestos — Keep Out” and looked through the oncoming fog.
Although it was difficult to imagine the station as a bustling community. Stromness was a part of a cruel and extremely profitable enterprise that turned. South Georgia into the South Atlantic’s whaling hub a century ago.
Ernest Shackleton arrived in Stromness in 1916 after making an incredible 1,300-kilometer escape from Elephant Island. One of the South Shetland Islands just north of the Antarctic Peninsula.
After his ship was trapped and later crushed by pack ice, according to Seb Coulthard. Expedition guide and on-board historian for Polar Latitudes, who I spoke with earlier in my trip.
The whaling station was a symbol of civilization to the polar explorer, but nature is gradually taking it back today. King penguins waddled past crumbling warehouses, fur seals sought refuge next to a blubber cooker, and skuas—aggressive.
Dark-brown seabirds washed themselves in winding streams that once carried the blood of tens of thousands of whales kilometers away from life.
One of the most isolated locations on the planet is South Georgia, a rocky, hostile region made up of fjords. Mountains, and glaciers.
This South Atlantic sub-Antarctic British foreign territory is only reachable by sea and is located around 1,400 kilometers from the Falkland Islands. Its closest populated neighbor.
Most of the almost 18,000 visitors annually are on Antarctic cruises, just like me.
About half of the 3,755 sq km island, which is less than a sixth of Wales’ size. Is constantly covered in ice, though its glaciers are rapidly disappearing due to climate change kilometers away from life.
South Georgia used to be an essential component of the world economy, despite its remote location and hostile climate. James Cook claimed this desolate island for Great Britain in 1775 after it was first observed in 1675. Sealers from the US and the UK were interested in his reports of large seal populations. The fur seals of South Georgia were hunted to near extinction in just over a century. Although sealing was no longer profitable by the early 1900s, it was swiftly superseded by a violent industry.
On The Day Following My Trip to Stromness
my ship headed south to King Edward Cove in 75-knot winds.
The earliest whaling station the planet is South Georgia in, Grytviken, was situated in this expansive harbor. Which is dotted with shipwrecks and small icebergs, surrounded by intimidating mountains, and hidden by drizzle.
The bulk of the 15 to 30 individuals that reside on South Georgia at any given time. Primarily scientists and government officials, call it home. Today, it serves as the location of the island’s main community.
Finlay Raffle, a curator at the site’s museum, showed me around the dilapidated whaling station after I paid my respects to Shackleton. Who is interred in Grytviken’s little cemetery.
We traversed a heavily rusted industrial area that included squat skyscrapers. Warehouses, power plants, intricate networks of interconnected pipelines, and enormous blubber and bone cookers.
The tide carried boats and ships in various states of collapse up at strange angles along the shore. The murky ground was covered in chunks of whale bone.
A stunning natural harbor was discovered by Norwegian arctic explorer Carl Anton Larsen during his 1902 visit in South Georgia.
The region was given the name Grytviken (or “Pot Cove” in Norwegian) following the finding of multiple sealers’ try-pots, which are used to extract oil from blubber.
Raffle remarked, They moored not far from where your ship is today. The only difference was that they observed hundreds of whales in this bay alone as they gazed out over the water.
Larsen saw a financial opportunity as the whaling industry in the northern hemisphere was in decline as a result of the decimation of whale populations.
In November 1904, he went back to Grytviken and established a whaling station, which quickly became successful. Stromness was one of six additional whaling stations on South Georgia by 1912.
We walked up to an old whale-catcher, narrowly avoiding a couple of fur seals who mingled amazingly well with the rusted apparatus.
Up to 14 whales could be caught in a single trip by the whaling ship Petrel because to its powerful harpoon cannon, reinforced hull, and steam-powered engine.
The animals would be winched onto a “flensing plan,” or slipway, back at Grytviken. Raffle remarked the men wore boots with nails in them to grip properly because it was really slippery with all the blood and oil.
They cut the blubber away using a flensing knife, which is a long, nearly hockey stick with a sharp, curved blade.
Each Whale Required 20 minutes to Complete The Process.
Raffle pointed to gruesome revolving blades and a 24-tonne blubber cooker to illustrate how the whalers were initially only interested in the blubber but later restrictions required them to use the entire carcass.
Whale oil was the true reward, even though the meat and bone meal were marketed as fertilizer and animal feed. He claimed that the best oils were used in food items like ice cream and margarine.
The poorest grade was utilized in industrial operations, while the second grade was employed in soap and cosmetics.” Additionally, whale oil produced high-grade lubricants for guns, chronometers. And other military gear, as well as glycerol, which is utilized in the production of explosives.
Demand consequently skyrocketed throughout World Wars One and Two.
The number of whales has not increased. Blue whale populations in the southern hemisphere have decreased from as many as 200,000 to the “low thousands. According to the International Whaling Commission (IWC); fin whale populations have also declined.
Although the southern hemisphere is thought to have 60,000 humpbacks. This number is far less than it was before whales were invented.
Pro-whaling nations rejected IWC plans for a South Atlantic whaling sanctuary in September 2018. Global indignation followed Japan’s announcement that it would recommence commercial whaling for the first time in thirty years.
Although the whales’ situation is undoubtedly dire, South Georgia has emerged as an unlikely conservation model in other ways.
The South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands Marine Protected Area, one of the largest marine reserves in the world. Was established here in 2012 to safeguard over a million square kilometers of the surrounding waters.
Seal populations have recovered. With the island now home to approximately 50% of the world’s elephant seals and 98% of its Antarctic fur seals.
Additionally, there are 30 million seabird breeding pairs in South Georgia.
I spent an afternoon on Prion Island, a crucial nesting location for roving albatrosses. And a morning at St Andrews Bay with 400,000 king penguins, one of the island’s four penguin types.
Following a groundbreaking eradication operation, South Georgia was certified rodent-free last year.
The authorities hope this would allow for the flourishing of indigenous birds like. The South Georgia pintail and South Georgia pipit.
As I sailed out of Grytviken. I could not help but think of the island’s whaling history despite its abundance of animals.
All you see when you walk around these stations are these bone saws, blubber cookers, and rusty boilers,” Coulthard remarked.
In spite of the fact that it was a horrible and cruel industry, nature reclaimed it, which is a bittersweet irony. It serves as a reminder that we need nature, not the other way around.
