South Georgia: An Ecosystem In Recovery And Under Threat

South Georgia, a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic, is a very rare example of an ecosystem that is in the process of recovery. For the first time in many years, blue whales have been spotted in its waters - 58 whales to be precise were spotted in February of this year.

South Georgia was a notorious whaling station in the early 20th Century, as many whales came to feed in its krill-rich waters, and blue whales were almost completely wiped out in the area. Steam boats using grenade-tipped harpoons were killing 3,000 blue whales a year.
It was thought that the fact that so few adults remained had caused the whales to “forget” these rich feeding grounds. But in February 2020, scientists looking for right whales discovered the blue whales feeding in the area.

It’s great news to know that South Georgia’s ecosystem is heading in the right direction, but as has happened with us humans, 2020 is throwing South Georgia a curve in the form of a huge iceberg that broke off from Antarctica three years ago and which is now on a possible collision course with South Georgia.

While small wandering icebergs are nothing new in the area, iceberg A68a is over 90 miles long and 40 miles wide, but is only about 1/8 of a mile deep, meaning it can much closer to land than giant icebergs usually can. It is now only about 125 miles from South Georgia and moving at about one mile an hour and is about the same size as the island itself.
A68a has already lost around a quarter of its mass while it has been floating around for the last three years, but it is still capable of causing catastrophic damage to the ecosystem of the island if it hits and grounds there.
The flora and fauna of the sea bed will be crushed and the resulting wall of ice will block seals and penguins from accessing the water to fish, which they need to do in order to feed their young.
When a much smaller berg hit the island in 2004, many penguin chicks and seal pups died.

And if the iceberg does ground on the island, the cold water it produces as it slowly melts could impact on the tiny organisms of the ocean that underpin the whole of the marine ecosystem. Birds, seals, penguins and the whales - many of them still having an endangered status - could all be affected by a reduction in algae and krill.

While the meltwater from an iceberg can act as a fertiliser for the water it travels through, as it contains sediments and minerals from Antarctica, we have to hope, for the sake of South Georgia’s wildlife, that iceberg A68a can manage to pull off a near miss and sail slowly by leaving only that beneficial trail behind it.

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