According to footage gathered from satellites, not a single emperor penguin chick that was born in the Bellingshausen Sea made it. The melting of Antarctica’s sea ice might lead to the extinction of some species, which would be a tragedy. The findings of the researchers, together with an analysis of what the future may hold for Antarctica and its wretched inhabitants, are outlined below.
We have never seen emperor penguins fail to breed at this scale in a single season. The sea ice loss in this region during the Antarctic summer made it very unlikely that displaced chicks would survive, explains cartographer Peter Fretwell of the British Antarctic Survey.
A “skirt” of persistent sea ice surrounds Antarctica and is tied to the continent for most of the year. This “fast ice,” as it is known, begins to form in April, which is the fall month in the Southern Hemisphere, and it continues to exist until January, which is the middle of summer. Emperor penguins are known to return to the same five locations in the Bellingshausen Sea on an annual basis in order to mate, lay eggs, and rear their young. These five colonies have a total population that ranges from 650 couples who breed to 3,500 breeding pairs, and the months of May and June are the months in which they lay their eggs.
The catastrophe occurred in the springtime. The area that was most severely affected was the Bellingshausen Sea, which is located to the west of the Antarctic peninsula. In this location, certain areas saw a loss of sea ice extent of one hundred percent.
Only at one location, Rothschild Island, which had 650 breeding pairs, were there any chicks that were able to safely fledge. However, the researchers detected no indication of the remaining babies, which is one of the outcomes that may be considered the very worst. Even at this late date in the year, the extent of the Antarctic sea ice has reached a record low for this time of year. If these patterns continue, according to the findings of experts, more than ninety percent of the emperor penguin colonies will be doomed to definite extinction by the close of the 21st century.
