No penguins harmed in making of trillion-ton iceberg
But Antarctic shelf is close to home
Don’t worry, penguin fans. There are no penguin colonies on the Larsen C ice shelf, nor on the newly created iceberg that just sheared off it, according to Project MIDAS, a British research organization.
Penguins live where they can access fish in the sea, and the cliff at the seaward edge of the ice shelf is at least 65 feet high. “Penguins can jump, but not that high,” said Swansea University professor Adrian Luckman of Project MIDAS.
The Larsen C ice shelf, however, is attached to the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, where plenty of penguins live. The 1-trillion-ton iceberg that broke off is the size of Delaware and one of the largest ever recorded.
While ice shelves can regrow, scientists said it’s likely the remains of Larsen C are too fragile to ever recover its original size.
Colonies of emperor and Adélie penguins live within 200 miles of where the massive chunk of ice detached, said penguin expert Ron Naveen, head of environmental group Oceanites.
“The emperors forage within range of the Larsen C, so one immediate concern is whether there will be an impact in terms of their finding food,” he said. “Longerterm, as the berg melts, there could be disruption to the ocean food chain simply because of fresh water being added to the ecosystem.”
The future progress and breakup of the iceberg into fragments are difficult to predict, Luckman said.
This year, in one of the most detailed surveys ever undertaken, Naveen determined that 12 million penguins live in Antarctica. The populations of the two most common species there — Adélies and chinstraps — are declining, largely because of climate change, the report says.