Yorke Bay

51°40′41″S 57°48′11″W / 51.678°S 57.803°W / -51.678; -57.803

Early mapping of Yorke Bay (Dom Pernety, 1769)

Yorke Bay is a bay on East Falkland in the Falkland Islands. It is located half a mile north of Port Stanley Airport, four miles to the northeast of the capital city of Stanley, on a peninsula connected to the mainland by the Boxer Bridge and a narrow isthmus known as "The Neck". Gypsy Cove is a smaller bay located on the west side of Yorke Bay. Most cruise ships pass Yorke Bay and Gypsy Cove on the way to dock in Stanley Harbour. It faces northwards into Port William, with Canopus Hill to the south, and is known internationally as a breeding site for the threatened Magellanic penguin.

Minefields

Because of Yorke Bay's strategic position as one of only three bays close to both Stanley and the airport with beaches capable of supporting an expected

amphibious landing on the east coast of East Falkland (the others being Surf Bay and Rookery Bay due east of Stanley), Yorke Bay beach was heavily mined with hundreds of anti-personnel and anti-tank minimum metal mines during the 1982 Argentine occupation of the Falkland Islands. The British forces eventually marched on Stanley from the landward side to the west instead, but the minefields around the airport remained and were never removed.^[1]

Prior to the war, Yorke Bay was a popular summer swimming and recreation site for local residents, but the entire northern coast of the Port Stanley Airport peninsula (including Yorke Bay) have been fenced and marked as strictly off-limits since a tractor and bulldozer were destroyed by an anti-tank mine while attempting to lay a pipeline in the area in 1986.[2]

A

wildlife refuge

where tourists can view the penguins safely from a distance without disrupting their habitat.

Since 2009, the UK has worked on removing mines from the area to comply with the international anti-personnel mine ban convention. On November 14, 2020, the island was declared free of landmines.^[5]

References

^ Falkland Islands Navigational Charts & Minefield Map; pg. 15-16, 2011 Harbor Info Brochure. http://www.falklandislands.com/shopimages/imagelibrary/pdfs/harbour-info-basic.pdf Archived 12 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine
^ CNN. "Penguins Stay Snug and Secure in Minefield". Sep 27, 2005. Reprinted at http://www.npboards.com/index.php?p=/discussion/4735/penguins-stay-snug-and-secure-in-minefield
^ field survey report, Cranfield University, 9 July 2007. pg. 44, 101. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 December 2009. Retrieved 30 August 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ CNN. "Penguins Stay Snug and Secure in Minefield". Sep 27, 2005. Reprinted at http://www.npboards.com/index.php?p=/discussion/4735/penguins-stay-snug-and-secure-in-minefield
^ "Falkland islanders celebrate being landmine free - after nearly 40 years". BBC News. 14 November 2020. Retrieved 26 January 2021.

External links

The Falklands penguins that would not explode - Magazine, BBC News website

[1] Falkland Islands Navigational Charts & Minefield Map; pg. 15-16, 2011 Harbor Info Brochure. http://www.falklandislands.com/shopimages/imagelibrary/pdfs/harbour-info-basic.pdf Archived 12 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine

[2] CNN. "Penguins Stay Snug and Secure in Minefield". Sep 27, 2005. Reprinted at http://www.npboards.com/index.php?p=/discussion/4735/penguins-stay-snug-and-secure-in-minefield

[3] survey report, Cranfield University, 9 July 2007. pg. 44, 101. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 December 2009. Retrieved 30 August 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[4] CNN. "Penguins Stay Snug and Secure in Minefield". Sep 27, 2005. Reprinted at http://www.npboards.com/index.php?p=/discussion/4735/penguins-stay-snug-and-secure-in-minefield

[5] "Falkland islanders celebrate being landmine free - after nearly 40 years". BBC News. 14 November 2020. Retrieved 26 January 2021.

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