Royal Navy and Royal Air Force personnel based in the Falkland Islands have conducted a long range rescue of a British man from a Russian cruise ship. The MV Akademic Sergei Vavilov was visiting South Georgia, 800 nautical miles to the east of the Falklands, when the man was bitten by what is thought to have been a fur seal at Salisbury Plain Beach.
A major new exhibition on Shackleton’s Endurance Expedition will open at the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), London, on 21 November, with an off-shoot exhibition coming to South Georgia early in 2016. The exhibitions are inspired by the glass plate negatives taken by Endurance expedition photographer Frank Hurley, according to the latest edition of the South Georgia Newsletter
Luxury cruise line Seaborn is adding a new adventure to its Antarctica voyages aboard 'Seabourn Quest' this season: Kayaking. Ventures by Seabourn optional kayak excursions will also be offered at South Georgia Island and Port Stanley, Falkland Islands. It's an expansion of the line's new Ventures by Seabourn excursions that launched last summer in other destinations.
Fifteen scientists from institutes around the world gathered in the Falkland Islands this week to assess future scientific requirements for South Georgia. Project manager Dr Vicky Peck from the British Antarctic Survey based in Cambridge explained that the South Georgia Future Science project wanted to identify what the scientific needs of the island were and how they could best be facilitated.
Every country has its bank holidays. Some are widespread such as Christmas Day and Good Friday, others are unique such as Peat Cutting Monday in the Falklands
and Melon Day in Turkmenistan.
South Georgia is looking ahead to a new record year in the coming 2015/16 cruise ship season, according to the latest edition of the South Georgia Newsletter.
The island of South Georgia attracted the highest ever number of cruise ship passengers in the 2014/15 season, in contrast to falling numbers of tourists visiting the Antarctic, according to the May edition of the South Georgia Newsletter.
Spanish government last Friday announced penalties that could reach more than €11 million against Spanish nationals, including companies involved in illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. An EU coalition of three international NGOs, including Environmental Justice Foundation, Oceana and WWF described the fines as a historic moment in the battle against IUU fishing and are calling on other EU member states to follow suit with their own nationals.
Studies of killer whales (Orca) in South Georgia waters may help fishermen avoid the whales stealing the fish off the fishing long-lines (termed depredation), according to the latest edition of South Georgia Newsletter.
The Falkland Islands government will be holding this week a reception for the team involved in the world's largest attempted rodent eradication project, in windy South Georgia, which completed the current baiting phase at the end of March.