Falklands penguins roost amid mines
TOO LIGHT TO DETONATE
KIDNEY COVE, FALKLAND ISLANDS • There’s a mating ritual going on in the minefield.
Fortunately the would-be lovers are penguins, too light to detonate the deadly mines laid more than two decades ago during a war on the far-flung Falkland Islands. Thousands of penguins and other feathered and amphibious birds choose to nest and rest in no-go zones. The British estimate 25,000 land mines, mostly sown by Argentine forces in the 1982 war with Britain, remain.
On a recent day, the squawking penguins were busily finding partners, preparing nests and waddling about the mating grounds.
Wildlife numbers in the mined areas appear to be on the rise, and conservationists cannot hide their enthusiasm about this unorthodox form of protecting lands previously trampled by walkers or overgrazed by sheep.
It is the bright spot in a long-term land mine problem, one that is not likely to go away because de-mining is difficult, if not impossible, in the peaty soils and shifting sands of this South Atlantic archipelago.
Grant Munro, director of Falklands Conservation, says the boost to wildlife is a bit anecdotal since “it has really not been looked into, for obvious reasons.”
“But you see an assemblage of plants in the minefields, all fenced and inspected, with no livestock inside. Vegetation has had a chance to recover.”
Most of the 150 minefields were laid around the capital Stanley when Argentine forces landed there in April, 1982, to claim the islands taken by the British in 1833.
Some mines were cleared right after the conflict ended 10 weeks later in a joint British-Argentine effort. Today, there are 117 minefields left, 87 of them in the Stanley area where two-thirds of the islands’ 2,900 people live.
Stanley is also the landing point for nearly 40,000 tourists who come on cruise ships every summer to ogle the wildlife, much like the greatest of all naturalists, Charles Darwin, did in 1833-34.
One of the mined areas is at Kidney Cove, an idyllic stretch of beach across from Stanley where four species of penguin — gentoo, king, rockhopper and Magellanic — show up every year.
At the end of winter, the first 500 of 1,500 gentoo pairs begin their mating ritual here after feeding in the cold waters. They waddle up from the mined beach to nesting areas among the tussocks of grass and diddle dee, a heather-like shrub.
One of their favourite spots is on the mined side of fences with “Danger Mines” and skull and crossbones signs. Tourists are kept on the safe side, allowing the penguins to forget about encroaching humans.
“ The gentoos come up on Kidney Cove and can rest there because it is in a minefield,” said Adrian Lowe, who runs penguin safaris on his family farm. “It is their natural habitat. Only the minefield fences are man-made.”
Just a few miles outside Stanley sits Yorke Bay, a sweeping crescent beach with calm waters where people used to swim and barbecue. As an ideal place for an amphibious landing, it was heavily mined in the war.
Next door is Gypsy Cove, where experts believe mines might have washed over from Yorke Bay, forcing authorities to also fence off that area.
Visitors to Gypsy Cove can still see Magellanic penguins, rock cormorants, black-crowned night herons and dolphins from the walkway at the top of the cliff. The nutritious tussock grass, which sheep reduced to 20% of its original cover, is making a comeback.
Incredibly, no civilian has died or been injured by the land mines, although one officer lost a foot in 1984 on the perimeter of a minefield. The fences were extended after that.
The government and the British forces still spend a lot of time educating Falklanders and won’t hesitate to hand down hefty penalties — $2,670 and a year in jail — for anyone stupid enough to jump the fences.
Sergeant Major Mick Owen, who heads the local explosive ordinance disposal, calls the Falklands “the most controlled mined area in the world.”
Argentina, which puts the number of remaining mines closer to 15,000, is offering to help clear more fields to adhere to an international treaty on land mines.
Falkland Islanders, however, are not pressing on the issue and most believe it is better not to fiddle with the fields.
“ There is a risk that only 95% would be removed,” said Howard Pearce, the islands’ Governor. “ You would bring a sense of complacency to the community and increase rather than reduce the chance of injury.”
Besides, he noted, “the environmentalists like them.”