The island of the penguins

South Georgia is a group of islands in the southern Atlantic Ocean, located at about the same latitude as the southern tip of South America. They rise out of the water like a mountain range. The storms of the Antarctic Sea collide here with 3,000-meter-high ridges. More than half of the island lies under ice. Icebergs drift off the coast. To humans, these conditions seem inhospitable and hostile, and in fact no civilians live permanently on the island, only delegates of the British government, which administers the archipelago. But for cold-adapted creatures, the area is virtually a paradise. The waters of the archipelago are rich in species, and in summer the ocean currents bring numerous fish, squid and other marine animals close to the coast. South Georgia is administered by Great Britain and claimed by Argentina - like the Falkland Islands located about 1400 km further west. Southwest of the archipelago, the polar sea is called the Scotian Sea - another legacy of the Age of Discovery. James Cook discovered it in 1775 for the King of England.