… The waters surrounding the islands are an important habitat for migrating whales and are host to a vast array of marine benthic fauna. South Georgia and the neighboring South Sandwich Islands are a “ haven for wildlife,” according to the local government, which points out that the islands are “home to about five million seals of four different species, and 65 million breeding birds of 30 different species. An iceberg has massive implications for where land-based predators might be able to forage.” “If they have to do a big detour, it means they’re not going to get back to their young in time to prevent them starving to death in the interim.” He added: “Ecosystems can and will bounce back of course, but there’s a danger here that if this iceberg gets stuck, it could be there for 10 years. “When you’re talking about penguins and seals during the period that’s really crucial to them-during pup- and chick-rearing-the actual distance they have to travel to find food (fish and krill) really matters,” said Tarling. “If have to make massive detours around the iceberg to make the same trip they normally would, they likely won’t be able to get back in time (to feed their young),” Geraint Tarling, an ecologist at the British Antarctic Society, told CNN, adding that because the iceberg is so big, it could remain stuck on the island for years, potentially causing catastrophic damage to the area’s marine life. The gargantuan iceberg, which CNN reported was less than 300 miles away from South Georgia earlier this month and traveling at 0.6 miles per hour, threatens to block seals’ and penguins’ access to their normal feeding grounds at a time of year that is critical for the growth of these colonies. The iceberg, known as “ A68,” is one of the world’s largest-larger than South Georgia itself-and broke off the Larsen ice shelf as a result of human-caused climate change, which is driving the rapid melting of the West Antarctic ice sheet. In 2017, a massive iceberg 80 times the size of Manhattan calved off of Antarctica, has been moving through open water, and is now bearing down on South Georgia Island, a British Overseas Territory, threatening a biodiverse ecosystem that supports critical habitat for thousands of animals, including penguins and seals.
(Photo credit: Antarctica Bound/ Flickr)īy Reynard Loki, Independent Media Institute Countdown to oblivion: Penguins are among the species under threat by a massive iceberg heading to their home on South Georgia Island.
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