Antarctica

• Tuesday, July 21st 2020 - 08:03 UTC

  Gentoo penguin in South Georgia 50 penny coins

  

  The gentoo penguin is featured on the second coin in the 2020 50-penny Penguin Series for South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands from the Pobjoy Mint. The coin’s release follows the recent release of the series’ first issue, featuring the chinstrap penguin.

• Friday, July 10th 2020 - 07:14 UTC

  Mint launches South Georgia 50-penny coins depicting Chinstrap penguins

  

  Penguins continue to be a popular motif for the Pobjoy Mint, which has just launched a new series of 50-penny coins depicting the flightless birds. The first coin in the 2020 50-penny coin series on behalf of South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands features the chinstrap penguin.

• Friday, July 3rd 2020 - 09:19 UTC

  IAATO's new guidance to enhance environmentally responsible travel to Antarctica

  

  IAATO, which celebrates its 30th year in 2021, has been carefully monitoring, analyzing, and reporting Antarctic tourism trends since its inception as part of its commitment to the effective self-management of guest activities.

• Tuesday, June 30th 2020 - 09:49 UTC

  South Pole warming at three times the global rate over the last three decades

  

  At the South Pole, considered the coldest point on Earth, temperatures are rising fast. So fast, in fact, that Kyle Clem and other climate researchers began to worry and wonder whether human-driven climate change was playing a bigger role than expected in Antarctica.

• Tuesday, June 30th 2020 - 08:01 UTC

  Australian icebreaker “Aurora Australia” could end in Argentina

  

  Australian researchers' ambition to keep the Aurora Australis icebreaker under the Aussie flag has been dealt a blow, with reports that the vessel has been sold to Argentina. For three decades the 'Orange Roughy' transported thousands of scientists, crew, and supplies for Australia's Antarctic mission.

• Monday, June 29th 2020 - 18:32 UTC

  Sea ice in the Weddell Sea has decreased by one million sq kilometers in five years

  

  Scientists have discovered that summer sea ice (*) in the Weddell Sea area of Antarctica has decreased by one million square kilometres – an area twice the size of Spain – in the last five years, with implications for the marine ecosystem. The findings are published this month in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

• Monday, June 29th 2020 - 06:56 UTC

  Funding boost for BAS space weather monitoring

  

  Space weather research at British Antarctic Survey (BAS) received a funding boost of around £2M from the SWIMMR (Space Weather Instrumentation, Measurement, Modelling and Risk) program.

• Thursday, June 25th 2020 - 05:55 UTC

  Micro plastics pollution reaches Antarctica: found in land based food systems

  

  Scientists have found bits of polystyrene in the guts of tiny, soil-dwelling organisms in the Antarctic, raising concern that micro-plastics pollution has already “deeply” entered the world's most remote land-based food systems.

• Thursday, June 25th 2020 - 05:28 UTC

  New members welcomed into responsible tourism fold at 2020 IAATO online annual meeting

  

  Two Operators, five provisional operators, and five new Associates have been welcomed into the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) at the responsible tourism organization's first online annual meeting.

• Monday, June 8th 2020 - 08:18 UTC

  Kiwi relief operation for a longliner operating in Falklands/South Georgia zone

  

  A New Zealand fishing boat has set off on what is quite possibly the longest and most expensive ride. It's gone to pick up 15 New Zealanders who've been fishing for toothfish halfway around the world off South Georgia.