Threats to wildlife are:

• Entanglement and/or capture in fishing gear outside South Georgia waters; this is particularly the case for albatrosses, which travel great distances for food. South Georgia's fisheries are carefully managed to avoid incidental bird catches.
  
  
• Illegal or unregulated fishing could compete with marine predators, such as South Georgia's bird and mammal communities. The Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) seeks to protect Antarctica's eco-systems by regulating fishing quotas. GSGSSI invests heavily in Fishery Protection patrols and other forms of surveillance.
  
  
• Habitat disturbance and destruction of tussac grasslands by a dramatic increase in the Antarctic fur seal population from a few 1,000 to over 3 million in the past 60 years. Introduced reindeer have over grazed large areas. The combination has opened up dense tussac and has provided greater access to skuas predating storm petrels, Antarctic prions and blue petrels.
  
  
• The brown rat was accidentally introduced by sealers in the early 1800 and has been responsible for the most significant widespread destruction of birds at South Georgia taking eggs and young chicks from burrowing petrels and the South Georgia Pipit. Most of these species now breed on over crowded rat free offshore islands.

Introduced Mammals:

South Georgia has no indigenous terrestrial mammals. During both the sealing and whaling industrial eras attempts were made to introduce animals for human benefit. Horses, reindeer, cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, poultry, upland geese, cats, dogs, foxes and even a monkey were brought to South Georgia. Only the reindeer remain. Accidental introduction of the brown rat and house mice also occurred and they also remain.

Reindeer were introduced from central Norway. Ten arrived in 1911 in Ocean Harbour on the Barff Peninsula. Their numbers increased rapidly to around 3,000, but have recently declined to around 1,300. An introduction in 1911/12 of 5 reindeer to Leith increased to around 20 before perishing in an avalanche in the 1920s. In 1925 an introduction of 7 reindeer in Husvik increased to a herd of around 800. Recently calves have been taken and introduced to the Falkland Islands for commercial farming. The reindeer have had a significant impact on the local flora, which has been continuously grazed for some 80 to 90 years.

House mice are found in Shallop Cove, Queen Maud Bay adjacent to King Haakon Bay living in the tussac grass. They have large amounts of brown fat that indicate their adaptation to the island's low temperatures.

Impact of rats:

The impact on some bird species of the introduction of the brown rat in the late 1700s has been severe throughout the length of the island. Evidence of rat burrows, nests and runs can be found up to 3 km from the shore. The dense tussac grasslands provide a favourable habitat with their roots, insects, kelp and carrion offering an all year around supply of food. The density of rats around disused whaling stations is greater than elsewhere. With no predator on South Georgia, apart from the brown skua, rat numbers are controlled by food supply. Ground nesting birds are preyed upon by rats and this has had a severe impact on the size of populations of the South Georgia pipit, pintails, prions and blue petrels. These species have been forced to nest on the smaller rat free offshore islands.