Counting South Georgia's fur seals

by Simon Nash for Surviving the southern whalers, 30 November 2008

South Georgia once attracted sealers from Europe and America. The target was the seals' fur pelts and hundreds of thousands of seals were slaughtered.

Simon Nash meets British Antarctic Survey photographer, Pete Bucktrout, who is conducting an aerial survey of the island's seal breeding beaches. His aim? to find out how well seals are doing now the hunting stopped.

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BAS photographer Pete Bucktrout takes aerial photos of seal breeding sites.

South Georgia now has the greatest concentration of seals on Earth, and collectively they have a profound impact on the ecology of the region.

Wildlife cameraman John Aitchison is Surrounded by fur seals on neighbouring Bird Island.