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The Latest Breaking News from the Southern Ocean

Australia will protect a vast swathe of the Southern Ocean, but squanders the chance to show global leadership

The Albanese government has today declared stronger protections for the waters around Heard Island and McDonald Islands, one of Australia’s wildest, most remote areas. The marine park surrounding the islands will be extended by 310,000 square kilometres, quadrupling its size.

The Conversation

License To Krill: There’s A New Threat To Whales And Its Just as Bad as the Last One

Whales feed for roughly 100 days out of each year; depending on the species, an adult whale may consume 1 to 6 tons of krill in a day.

Inverse

Antarctic krill store as much carbon as the world’s mangroves, salt marshes and seagrass beds

Antarctic krill – shrimp-like crustaceans that inhabit the icy waters surrounding Antarctica – may be small (around 5cm) but they have an enormous total biomass, similar to that of the global human population. However, while humans pump ever more carbon into the atmosphere, krill are working in reverse. They are…

The Conversation

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Whales are recovering from near extinction, but industrial fishing around Antarctica competes for their sole food source

The Southern Ocean encircling Antarctica is the world’s largest feeding ground for baleen whales – species like humpbacks that filter tiny organisms from seawater for food. In the 20th century, whalers killed roughly 2 million large whales in the Southern Ocean. Some populations, like the Antarctic blue whale, were reduced…

The Conversation

Giant waves, monster winds and Earth’s strongest current: here’s why the Southern Ocean is a global engine room

The Southern Ocean is wild and dynamic. It experiences Earth’s strongest winds and largest waves. It is home to city-sized icebergs and the biggest ocean current on the globe, as well as tiny turbulent flows that fit inside a teacup.

The Conversation

Earth from space: Gravity waves spark pair of perfect cloud ripples above uninhabited islands

This 2023 astronaut photo shows a pair of perfectly aligned "wave clouds" rippling above the Crozet Islands in the Southern Ocean. The unusual patterns are the result of changes in temperature caused by gravity waves.

LiveScience

Of ice and fire: what sea salt in Antarctic snowfall reveals about bushfires worse than the Black Summer

Australia has a long history of bushfires. The 2019-2020 Black Summer was the worst in recorded history. But was that the worst it could get?

The Conversation

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Floating robots reveal just how much airborne dust fertilises the Southern Ocean – a key climate ‘shock absorber’

The Southern Ocean, a region critical to Earth’s climate, hosts vast blooms of microscopic ocean plants known as phytoplankton. They form the very basis of the Antarctic food web.

The Conversation

Japan-bought patrol ship to ramp up anti-whaling fight

A former fisheries vessel has been bought from the Japanese government by anti-whaling activists for use in the Southern Ocean.

AAP

The vast new whaling ‘mother ship’ that Japan hopes will revive a shrinking industry

A new $47m vessel is preparing for its maiden voyage in coastal waters, but there are fears the Kangei Maru could one day mean a return to hunting in the Southern Ocean

The Guardian - AU

The Southern Ocean has the earth’s cleanest air — scientists finally know why

The Southern Ocean is renowned for having the cleanest air on Earth. But the precise reasons why have remained a mystery, until now.

The Hindu

Record voyage to uncover Antarctic climate mysteries

Scientists have set off on an almost 10,000km voyage to uncover information about the Southern Ocean that could shed light on the future of climate change.

AAP

Zoom through a 'spectacular' chain of ancient underwater volcanoes on Antarctic ocean floor

A research expedition in the Southern Ocean has mapped a string of seamounts that help to shape the Antarctic Circumpolar Current — an ocean current that flows clockwise around Antarctica.

LiveScience

Deep sea dormant volcanoes mapped for first time

Scientists hope mapping long-dormant volcanoes in the Southern Ocean can lead to a better understanding of a crucial current surrounding Antarctica.

AAP

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Inverse

Giant Iceberg 3 Times The Size of NYC Is Loose — Where Will It Go?

Iceberg A23A could disrupt shipping lanes and cause an ecological disaster.

AAP

Fire-hit supply ship 'not prepared' for Southern Ocean

An Antarctic resupply ship that suffered a damaging engine fire was not adequately prepared for operations in the Southern Ocean, a safety report has found.

AAP

Robot's three-year mission to gather ocean data

Scientists on the CSIRO research vessel Investigator have recovered a deep water robot that has spent three years gathering data in the Southern Ocean.

The Hindu

Kufos researchers brave extreme Arctic conditions in quest for new findings

KUFOS researchers from Kochi are swapping warm climes for Arctic research. Four have already made it to the list of Arctic explorers. All are from the same lab and focus on the Southern Ocean. Their research includes sedimentary organic compounds, micro/nano-plastics, pollutants, Arctic warming, and methane release. Resmi P. is…

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AAP

Evidence of climate change impact on ocean, Antarctica

Climate change has impacted the ecosystem and species of the Southern Ocean and Antarctica, a five-year study by 200 scientists shows.

The Conversation

More than 200 scientists from 19 countries want to tell us the Southern Ocean is in trouble

While the Southern Ocean around Antarctica has been warming for decades, the annual extent of winter sea ice seemed relatively stable – compared to the Arctic. In some areas Antarctic sea ice was even increasing.

The Conversation

We landed a camera on Venus before seeing parts of our own oceans – it’s time to ramp up observations closer to home

Viewed from the Voyager 1 space probe as it passed beyond the edge of the solar system, Earth and Venus might not look too different – same diameter, similar mass and distance from the Sun.

The Guardian - AU

Scientists lament Southern Ocean ‘data desert’, just as climate crisis brings frightening changes

Loss of sea ice and rising temperatures in the ocean around Antarctica have a huge effect on the Earth’s climate, but the ability to track them is lagging

The Guardian - AU

Is the climate crisis finally catching up with Antarctica? Finding the answer has never been more pressing

Our inability to confidently predict sea level rise between an extremely challenging two metres and a civilisation-ending 10 metres is an exemplar of the problem facing researchers

The Week

Two young brothers launch model boats to circumnavigate Antarctica

Two brothers from Aberdeenshire have built model boats that they hope will circumnavigate Antarctica. Ollie and Harry Ferguson, 13 and 11, were inspired by the Ross expedition of 1839-43, which led to the discovery of the Ross Ice Shelf. They built one metre-long replicas of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror,…

Zenger

Antarctic Underwater Landslides May Trigger Devastating Tsunamis

Climate change could lead to catastrophic loss of life and economic havoc as waves stretch across the Southern Ocean.

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