HMS Dragon made her first visit to South Georgia over Christmas, reports the South Georgia newsletter in its December edition. The Type 45 air defense destroyer had a Westland Lynx helicopter on board which was used to survey the Barff Peninsula for any remaining reindeer ahead of the arrival of the Norwegian SNO marksmen.
The largest glacier in East Antarctica, containing ice equivalent to a six-meter rise in global sea levels, is melting due to warm ocean water, Australian scientists said on Monday.
A new polar research vessel is currently being designed for the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). The new vessel will be an ice-capable, multi-role polar research and logistics ship which will be used to conduct science and to resupply the BAS stations such as the two in South Georgia, according to the latest South Georgia Newsletter.
States took a major step toward urgently needed ocean protection at the United Nations over the weekend agreeing to develop a legally binding agreement to conserve marine life in the high seas. After four days of deliberations States reached consensus to begin negotiating the first UN treaty that specifically addresses the protection of marine life in an area covering half the planet – those ocean areas beyond national jurisdiction.
Staying hidden behind sea ice and large waves, sailors aboard a navy patrol boat from New Zealand sneaked up on three suspected poaching ships, then took photos and video of the fishermen hauling in prized fish in banned nets from the ocean near Antarctica. Seemingly caught red-handed, the crews of the rusting vessels just kept on fishing.
The world’s northernmost colony of king penguins has something to celebrate this week, as Tuesday marks Penguin Awareness Day and these well dressed seabirds play host to an international group of scientists gathered to discuss the Falkland Islands’ rich potential for new research.
Visiting scientists from “all corners of the Americas” have received a warm welcome to the Falkland Islands. The delegates from the US, Canada, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico and Chile are experts in a range of fields including marine ecology, oceanography and geology and are on a week-long visit at the invitation of the Falkland Islands government and the South Atlantic Environmental Research Institute, SAERI.
Following in the footsteps of Charles Darwin, who first visited the Islands in 1833, the first ever Pan–American Science Delegation to the Falkland Islands arrived in Stanley on Saturday, January 17.
Environmentalist, renowned sailor and Falklands resident Sally Poncet has joined an elite group of only eight women to have been awarded the prestigious Polar Medal this year. South Georgia Marine Officer Patrick Lurcock has also received the honor.
Last year was the hottest on Earth since record-keeping began in 1880, scientists reported on Friday, underscoring warnings about the risks of runaway greenhouse gas emissions and undermining claims by climate change contrarians that global warming had somehow stopped.