Port Lockroy Vacations, Port Lockroy Vacation Reviews, Tourism Guide

Port Lockroy Vacation Guide

Port Lockroy is a natural harbour on the Antarctic Peninsula of the British Antarctic Territory. After its discovery in 1903 by the French Antarctic Expedition it was used for whaling and British military operations during World War II and then continued to operate as a British research station until 1962. Goal was to protect interests in the Southern Ocean.

In 1996 Port Lockroy was renovated and is now a museum and Post office operated by the United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage Trust. It is designated as Historic Site no. 61 under the Antarctic Treaty and one of the most popular tourist destinations in Antarctica. Proceeds from the small souvenir shop fund the upkeep of the site and other historic sites and monuments in Antarctica.

Port Lockroy was named after Edouard Lockroy, a French politician and Vice President of the Chamber of Deputies, who assisted Jean-Baptiste Charcot in obtaining government support for the French expedition.

A major experiment on the island is to test the effect of tourism on penguins. Half the island is open to tourists, while the other half is reserved for penguins. So far, interestingly, the results show that tourism has a slight positive effect on penguins, possibly due to the presence of people being a deterrent to skuas - Antarctic birds that prey on penguin chicks and eggs.
Nearby you can visit a gentoo rookery and also see blue-eyed shags (cormorants) and witness sad reminders of past whaling activities.