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First South Georgia's visitors guide; Brazilian team surveyed humpback whales in SG; Uruguay grew 6.6% in 2005; Meat per capita consumption in Chile: 75.5 kilos.

First South Georgia's visitors guide

The publication of South Georgia's first visitors guide and a family of briefing DVDs has been announced by the government of South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands. Sally Poncet and Kim Crosbie are the authors of the visitors guide, an excellent production with 180 pages of full colour with wonderful imagery. All of the 25 visitor sites are mapped and described. Environmental and historical heritage are covered, essential tips for visitors are also included. All wildlife is covered and there is a checklist for all fauna and flora. The briefing DVDs were produced for GSGSSI by Project Atlantis. They come in three versions: visitors, expeditions and the military. The production lasts about 30 minutes and makes use of some amazing BBC footage recorded by Alastair Fothergill and his team. The DVDs are a companion to the GSGSSI notes for visitors to South Georgia. Project Atlantis is a "not for profit" research group based at the University of Dundee to provide environmental educational resources through digital media. The group has delivered the official Government website for South Georgia Island. Other recent projects have included providing a proposal for an exhibition centre on South Georgia to celebrate the achievements of the Discovery Investigations and to explain the Government's environmental policy for a sustainable fishing industry as well as the work of scientists on the island. Currently the group is producing a series of environmental briefing videos for visitors to the island of South Georgia.

Brazilian team surveyed humpback whales in SG

In January a Brazilian group surveying humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) visited King Edward Cove in South Georgia Island. They arrived from Mar del Plata in Argentina on the yacht Kotic II owned and captained by Oleg Bely. He is a veteran of ten South Georgia visits. The aim of the survey, led by Enrico Marcovaldi who is also a photographer and film director, is to discover the main feeding areas of the humpbacks that migrate every year to the waters of Praia Do Forte bay in Brazil to breed and nurse their calves between July and November The team studied the whales feeding in the Weddell Sea and along their migratory routes in the South Atlantic over a period of 45 days. Whale biologist Márcia Engel also from Brazil, using genetic analysis, demonstrated that the Brazilian population of humpbacks does not feed around the Antarctic Peninsula as previously thought, but in the Weddell Sea and around South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands. The results of the research will contribute to strategies for conservation of large cetaceans and to support a Brazilian proposal to make all of the South Atlantic a whale sanctuary. The law around South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands of course already protects whales.

Uruguay grew 6.6% in 2005

Uruguay's economy grew 6.6 percent in 2005 compared with a year earlier, fueled by strong exports and growth in the farm and communications sectors, the central bank said today. The figure came in slightly above initial government forecasts of 6.5 percent. Gross domestic product in the fourth quarter gained 1.2 percent from the third quarter. In 2005, Uruguay's crucial agricultural sector grew 3.2 percent, due mainly to expanded production of beef, wool and milk, the central bank said in a quarterly report. The industrial segment expanded 9.5 percent last year due to surging exports of goods such as food, drinks, tobacco, metal products and machinery.

Meat per capita consumption in Chile: 75.5 kilos

Chile's per capita meat consumption in 2005 reached 75.5 kilos, a 2.2% increase over 2004 (73.9 kilos), revealed Wednesday in Santiago Reinaldo Ruiz head of the Agrarian Studies and Policies Office. "This reflects the uninterrupted growth in all meats supply which Chile has been undergoing in the last twenty years. This way we're approaching consumption levels of developed countries as those in the European Union which has an overall average of 85 kilos per capita", added Ruiz. Last year beef was the rising star with a 4.2% increase in consumption reaching 25.2 kilos per capita, the highest in the current decade. Pork consumption rose 5.2% totalling 19.3 kilos, which is below the 2002 record, but broiler consumption remained almost stable at 30.3 kilos per capita compared to 2004. Apparently the poultry figures are linked to a jump in exports, which increased considerably in 2005, above production, and were partly compensated by imports. Anyhow the 0.96% consumption increase in 2005 was below the population growth.