Antarctica

• Friday, July 4th 2025 - 23:26 UTC

  Fundraising teen pilot detained in Chilean Antarctica

  

  Ethan Guo, a 19-year-old pilot and social media influencer, has been detained on King George Island, Antarctica, after a failed attempt to complete a solo flight across all seven continents to raise US$1 million for childhood cancer research.

• Wednesday, June 18th 2025 - 05:27 UTC

  Antarctica Emperor penguin population decreasing faster than expected, satellite imagery

  

  Antarctica’s emperor penguin population may be decreasing faster than some of the most pessimistic predictions. A new analysis of up-to-date satellite imagery suggests the birds’ numbers declined 22% over a 15-year period (2009 to 2024) in a key sector of the continent – encompassing the Antarctic Peninsula, Weddell Sea and Bellingshausen Sea.

• Saturday, June 14th 2025 - 05:40 UTC

  Ship anchor damaging sea fauna in Antarctica reported

  

  A 2022-2023 study published in Frontiers in Conservation Science provides the first documented evidence of ship anchor damage to Antarctica’s seafloor, revealing severe impacts on fragile marine ecosystems.

• Wednesday, June 11th 2025 - 08:11 UTC

  The plastic legacy has reached profusely to the bottom of the planet

  

  On 5 June, UN World Environment Day, the campaign motto was “Beat Plastic Pollution”, and with very good reasons, we are surrounded by plastic pollution and a report from BAS indicates that at the bottom of the world, where few humans have ever set foot, an unwelcome visitor has arrived. Antarctica – the vast, frozen wilderness of ice and snow – is no longer untouched by humanity’s most persistent pollutant: plastic.

• Tuesday, June 10th 2025 - 08:27 UTC

  Join the British Antarctic Survey at Seawork 2025, Southampton 10/12 June

  

  The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) is exhibiting at Europe’s commercial marine and workboat exhibition, Seawork 2025,– and is inviting seafarers, cadets, and maritime professionals to come and discover what it takes to support science at the ends of the Earth.

• Monday, June 9th 2025 - 08:07 UTC

  Sustainable Fisheries at South Georgia MPA

  

  Sue Gregory has worked as the GSGSSI Senior Marine & Fisheries Manager for the past 8 years. Prior to that Sue worked as a fisheries ecologist on the South Georgia Project at the British Antarctic Survey for many years, including overwintering on South Georgia, conducting research surveys and acting as a scientific observer on Southern Ocean commercial fishing vessels In the following GSGGSSI Newsletter, Sue relates her experience.

• Saturday, June 7th 2025 - 06:32 UTC

  IAATO mandates acoustic mitigation measures for B1 killer whales in 2025/26 season

  

  IAATO, the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators, is mandating members operating in whale rich waters around the Antarctica Peninsula to implement acoustic mitigations measures, reports Anne Kalosh from Seatrade Cruise News.

• Friday, June 6th 2025 - 10:59 UTC

  Historic polar ship SS Terra Nova revisited in first-ever wreck survey

  

  An expedition led by the motor yacht MY Legend has completed the first visual survey of the wreck of the SS Terra Nova, offering new insight into one of the most emblematic ships of polar exploration. Located off the coast of Greenland, the wreck was first discovered in 2012, nearly 70 years after the ship sank during World War II.

• Saturday, May 31st 2025 - 13:52 UTC

  British Family concern with Darwin Plus suspension and possible axing of vital conservation funds

  

  Environmentalists, UK MPs and the same British Overseas Territories fear that Chancellor Rachel Reeves could be axing a vital fund, some £10 million to the Darwin Plus scheme, which is essential for scientific research in places such as the Falkland Islands and South Georgia.

• Thursday, May 29th 2025 - 14:49 UTC

  Forty years since the discovery of the ozone hole by a team of BAS scientists

  

  This month, the world will mark the 40th anniversary of a moment that changed the course of history: the publication in Nature of ground-breaking research that presented the discovery of the ozone hole more precisely on 16 May 1985.