
A new Data Portal was launched on Friday by the British Antarctic Survey and the Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (GSGSSI), which will help to enhance the management of one of the world’s largest Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).

A new map of the seafloor of the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica provides the most accurate representation of this vast area to date. The International Bathymetric Chart of the Southern Ocean (IBSCO) has taken five years to compile and update this map, which was first published in 2013.

Argentine Defense Minister Jorge Taiana presided over the entry into operation of an air surveillance and control radar in Río Grande, Tierra del Fuego. The equipment (model RPA -170M) was designed and built entirely in Argentina.

Britain's Plymouth Marine Laboratory has commissioned Plymouth-based M Subs Ltd to design and build the autonomous mono-hulled vessel, supported by funding from the Natural Environment Research Council. The vessel-sub Oceanus is scheduled to make its inaugural voyage from the UK to the Falkland Islands, doing marine research along the way without any crew on board.

RRS Sir David Attenborough departed Rothera Research Station for the final time earlier in May and is now making its way back to the UK, marking the end of the BAS Antarctic summer field season.

A team of Chilean scientists doing research in Antarctica has come up with bacteria resistant to antibiotics and other man-developed treatments thanks to information passed on through genes, it was reported.

“I have always had an interest in the Falkland Islands ever since, as a schoolboy in London in 1982, I watched the Task Force set sail. While the conflict in the Falklands was short, it had a huge impact on the people of the Falkland Islands and their relationship with Argentina,” said Judge Malcolm Simmons, senior judge and Coroner of the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands, and the British Antarctic Territory.

Argentine President Alberto Fernández has announced he would spend the May 25 National Holiday at a school in the Esperanza Base in Antarctica, weather permitting. The move would allow him to skip the traditional religious service at Buenos Aires' cathedral.

By Sean Kingsley for Wreckwatch magazine* – Mensun Bound is a fifth-generation Falkland Islander, born to the sea and its mysteries. By fusing academia with firing the public imagination, he creates buzz after buzz around underwater archaeology. In the 1980s he set up and directed Oxford University MARE, England’s first academic maritime archaeological unit, and in 1994 was appointed the Triton Fellow in Maritime Archaeology at St Peter’s College, Oxford.

The latest British Antarctic Survey (BAS) Antarctic Digital Database (ADD) data will be included in a world leading collection of geographic information. ADD is a compilation of the best available topographic data for Antarctica. It is managed by BAS’ Mapping and Geographic Information Centre (MAGIC) on behalf of The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research and is an essential tool for researchers navigating and understanding Antarctica’s ever changing landscape.