Port Lockroy
| Port Lockroy | ||
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 Port Lockroy in 1962, with Luigi Peak in the background |
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| Waters | Neumayer Canal | |
| Land mass | Wiencke Island , Palmer Archipelago | |
| Geographical location | 64 ° 49 '23 " S , 63 ° 29' 2" W | |
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| width | 800 m | |
| depth | 800 m | |
| Islands | Goudier Island | |
 The station at Port Lockroy after the renovation and conversion into a museum |
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Port Lockroy is a natural harbor in the British Antarctic Territory . It is located between Flag Point and Lécuyer Point on the west coast of Wiencke Island in the Palmer Archipelago west of Graham Land on the Antarctic Peninsula .
Participants in the Fourth French Antarctic Expedition (1903–1905) led by polar explorer Jean-Baptiste Charcot discovered it on February 19, 1904. Charcot named it after the French politician Édouard Lockroy (1840–1913), Vice-President of the Chamber of Deputies, who helped to win the support of the French government for the expedition.
The natural harbor was later used for whaling and for British military operations in World War II , such as Operation Tabarin . Until 1962, Goudier Island was the location of a British research station (Station A) that was subsequently abandoned. This was renovated in 1996 and now serves as a museum and houses a United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage Trust operated post office. The post office, which is considered to be the southernmost on earth, cannot dispatch its shipments via the nearest port of Ushuaia in Argentina, which is 1000 km away , but has to send them via the Falkland Islands . In the Antarctic Treaty , the port is listed as a Historic Site HSM-61 . It is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Antarctica. The proceeds from the small souvenir shop finance the preservation of the place and other historical places and monuments in Antarctica .
On Goudier Island, the effects of tourism, which is limited to a maximum of three cruise ships each day with a maximum of 500 passengers - of which only 60 are allowed to be on land at the same time - will be tested on penguins. Part of the island is accessible to tourists who are only allowed to walk on fixed paths and in limited areas. The greater part remains closed to protect the penguins. So far, the results show that tourism has had a rather positive effect on penguins, possibly in that the presence of humans drives off skuas, Antarctic birds that prey on penguin chicks and eggs.
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Web links
- Pictures of Port Lockroy
- Port Lockroy at the United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage Trust
- Port Lockroy ( Virtual Tour ) at the British Antarctic Survey
Individual evidence
- ↑ Michael Marek, Sven Less: British-Argentine relations: Post from the end of the world has it hard , article from September 12, 2015 in the series Eine Welt des Deutschlandfunk , seen on September 15, 2015
- ↑ Short letter on a long journey. In: FAZ of October 2, 2014, page R4.
- ↑ UKAHT Visitor Guidelines. UK Antarctic Heritage Trust, accessed September 25, 2018 .