Donald Lamont, a former British ambassador and former governor of the Falkland Islands took over as chairman of the United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage Trust. He replaces Philippa Foster Back, who retires from the position having served as trustee since 2000 and chair for the past seven years.
HMS Protector, the Royal Navy’s Ice Patrol Ship, has returned to Portsmouth at the end of a nine-month deployment to the ‘Frozen Continent’. Operating in the British Antarctic Territory, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands throughout the Austral Summer, the ship conducted three intensive work periods in the ice, and a fourth work period in the waters surrounding South Georgia.
The Buenos Aires media is reporting a potential incident situation in South Georgia waters which could erupt into something more complicated from the moment the Argentine research vessel ‘Eduardo Holmberg’ has been involved in scientific activities in a zone which last year was declared by the UK as a Maritime Protected Area, MPA, and which Argentina does not recognize since it considers it ‘an area in dispute’.
Argentina’s scientific research vessel “Dr. Eduardo L. Holmberg” left on Friday from Mar del Plata for the South Georgia area for a thirty day cruise in the framework of the Convention for the conservation of Antarctic marine living resources, CCAMLR, reports the Foreign Ministry from Buenos Aires.
By Harold Briley - The Falkland Islands, South Georgia or the British Antarctic Territories stand to benefit from an ambitious science research project to commemorate Ernest Shackleton’s 1914 trans-Antarctic expedition.
Edinburgh, the Royal Navy's last remaining Type 42 destroyer, returned to Portsmouth from her final deployment last week. The 30 year old warship has spent the past 6 months patrolling the Atlantic and over the years has been in several assignments in the Falkland Islands and South Georgia.
Sailors onboard the South Atlantic patrol Royal Navy HMS Argyll saved the life of a Japanese fisherman who had suffered a serious head injury off the coast of Africa. Approximately 20 miles off the Cape Verde coast she received news that a fisherman onboard the trawler Wakashio Maru No 82 had been seriously hurt in an accident 24 hours earlier.
The Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (GSCSSI) has announced the completion of the first phase of the eradication of reindeer from the island of South Georgia.
January was the busiest month of the tourist season for South Georgia with 13 visits from cruise ships; in the second week of the month seven cruise ships visited. There were also visits by the Fishery Patrol Vessel, research vessels, and a large motor yacht, reports the latest editions of the South Georgia Newsletter.
The South Atlantic Environmental Research Institute (SAERI) announced a new program: the South Atlantic Information Management System and GIS Centre, which officially brings together the UK South Atlantic Overseas Territories in SAERI’s South Atlantic scope that ranges from the equator down to the ice. The Centre is funded by the FCO via the UK’s Joint Nature Conservation Committee.