Bird Island off South Georgia

Bird Island (54°00′ S 038°03′ W (http://kvaleberg.com/extensions/mapsources/index.php?params=54_00_S_038_03_W_)) is 4.8 km (3 mi) long and 800 metres (0.5 mi) wide, separated from the western end of South Georgia by Bird Sound. It is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom, also claimed by Argentina as part of Tierra del Fuego province. Discovered in 1775 by a British expedition under James Cook, who so named it because he saw numerous birds on the island. The island has been a station for Antarctic research since 1963, and is currently a Biological research station of the British Antarctic Survey at Jordan Cove. The main focus of the research is the ecology and population of the island's seabirds and seals. The island is home to 4 resident biologists, 65,000 Antarctic Fur Seals (around 1 for every 1.5 m² of the island), 14,000 pairs of albatross and several hundred thousand other seabirds. Map showing the island of South Georgia Image by ChrisO Adapted from Image:South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands. ... Map showing the island of South Georgia Image by ChrisO Adapted from Image:South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands. ... South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom, also claimed by Argentina as part of Tierra del Fuego province (because of that, some of the islands have also Spanish names). ... British explorer James Cook, portrait by Nathaniel Dance, c. ... 1963 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... BAS headquarters The British Antarctic Survey (BAS), formerly the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS), is an institute of the Natural Environment Research Council, and has, for the last fifty years, undertaken the majority of Britains scientific research on and around the Antarctic continent. ... Ecology is sometimes used as an incorrect synonym for the natural environment. ... Seabirds are birds that spend much of their lives, outside the breeding season at least, at sea. ... subfamilies Otariidae Phocidae Odobenidae Pinnipeds are large marine mammals belonging to the Pinnipedia, a family (sometimes a suborder or superfamily, depending on the classification scheme) of the order Carnivora. ... Binomial name Arcetocephalus gazella Peters, 1875 The Antarctic Fur Seal (Arctocephalus gazella) is one of seven seals in the genus Arctocephalus. ... Genera Diomedea Thallasarche Phoebastria Phoebetria The albatrosses (from Portuguese Alcatraz, a pelican) are seabirds in the family Diomedeidae, which is closely allied to the petrels. ...