A massive iceberg in Antarctica might have caused the deaths of 150,000 penguins.
Researchers with the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Whales in Australia have been studying the effects of iceberg B098 on the Adelie penguin population in Antartica’s Cape Denison, Commonwealth Bay.
“Our recent counts indicate that there has been a major decline in penguin numbers at Cape Denison since the stranding of B09B in 2010,” the study says.
B098 measures 1,000 square miles. According to the study, it has taken away this particular penguin colony’s access to the sea, which has forced the Adelie penguins to waddle up to 60 kilometers across land to find food.
Subsequently, the number of Adelie penguins has dropped from 160,000 in 2011 to 10,000 today.
“During the census in December 2013, the impact of B09B on the penguins was considerably more dire than the census numbers alone would suggest,” the study reads. “Hundreds of abandoned eggs were noted, and the ground was littered with the freeze-dried carcasses of previous season’s chicks.”
Breeding has also become a problem for the Adelie since the advent of B098.
“Although Adelie penguins are able to breed successfully under a range of sea ice conditions, we believe the extensive fast ice at Cape Denison in 2013 was beyond that with which they could cope,” the researchers found.
The prognosis for replenishing the Adelie penguin population is bleak: “Since the formation of fast ice in Commonwealth Bay, a very high percentage of breeding attempts at Cape Denison have failed, and this will doubtless continue until B09B breaks up or relocates and the fast ice dissipates.”
