and UK assert
claims (some overlapping), including the continental shelf in the
Southern Ocean; several states have expressed an interest in
extending those continental shelf claims under the United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to include undersea
ridges; the US and most other states do not recognize the land or
maritime claims of other states and have made no claims themselves
(the US and Russia have reserved the right to do so); no formal
claims exist in the waters in the sector between 90 degrees west and
150 degrees west

This page was last updated on 20 October, 2005

======================================================================

@South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

Introduction South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

Background:
The islands lie approximately 1,000 km east of the Falkland Islands
and have been under British administration since 1908, except for a
brief period in 1982 when Argentina occupied them. Grytviken, on
South Georgia, was a 19th and early 20th century whaling station.
Famed explorer Ernest SHACKLETON stopped there in 1914 en route to
his ill-fated attempt to cross Antarctica on foot. He returned some
20 months later with a few companions in a small boat and arranged a
successful rescue for the rest of his crew, stranded off the
Antarctic Peninsula. He died in 1922 on a subsequent expedition and
is buried in Grytviken. Today, the station houses scientists from
the British Antarctic Survey. The islands have large bird and seal
populations, and, recognizing the importance of preserving the
marine stocks in adjacent waters, the UK, in 1993, extended the
exclusive fishing zone from 12 nm to 200 nm around each island.

Geography South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

Location:
Southern South America, islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, east
of the tip of South America

Geographic coordinates:
54 30 S, 37 00 W

Map references:
Antarctic Region

Area:
total: 3,903 sq km
land: 3,903 sq km
water: 0 sq km
note: includes Shag Rocks, Black Rock, Clerke Rocks, South Georgia
Island, Bird Island, and the South Sandwich Islands, which consist
of some nine islands

Area - comparative:
slightly larger than Rhode Island

Land boundaries:
0 km

Coastline:
NA km

Maritime claims:
territorial sea: 12 nm
exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm