What a beauty am I....

Its beauty almost led to the Antarctic fur seal's extinction

During the 1800s, sealers haunted the beaches of the South Shetlands. On the southwest side of Greenwich Island, there is a harbour called Yankee Harbour. As early as 1820, the harbour was an important anchorage to sealers (who called it Hospital Cove). A rusty old tripod is still there. A guy called William Smith came to the South Shetlands for the fifth time in 1820-1821, his two vessels alone took over 60,000 fur seal skins. By the end of 1821, the fur seals were almost completely gone