[imagesource: Getty Images]
The penguins and seals you see above don’t seem particularly flustered, because life on the island of South Georgia is pretty laidback.
The British Overseas Territory, which measures around 1 362 square miles, is a key breeding ground for king penguins, as well as fur and elephant seals, but now there’s a rather sizeable existential threat bearing down.
The A68a iceberg, which is the world’s largest iceberg, broke free of the Larsen C ice shelf in 2017, drifting along what is commonly referred to as “iceberg ally”.
As things stand, it’s on a direct path to collide with South Georgia. This would be catastrophic, according to the Telegraph:
“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 Professor Geraint Tarling, an ecologist at British Antarctic Survey (BAS).
“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.”
When A68a first broke free, it was around 2 300 square miles, but a section has since broken off.
The fear itself is not the impact, but that the iceberg could get stuck and anchor offshore, which would completely change the ecosystem.
In 2004, following an iceberg named A38 grounding at South Georgia, large numbers of dead seal pups and penguin chicks were found on the surrounding beaches.
For a shred of good news, we go to the BBC:
The BAS researcher is in the process of trying to organise the resources to study A68a at South Georgia, should it do its worst and ground in one of the key productive areas for wildlife and the local fishing industry.
The potential impacts are multi-faceted – and not all negative, [Tarling] stresses.
For example, icebergs bring with them enormous quantities of dust that will fertilise the ocean plankton around them, and this benefit will then cascade up the food chain.
There is a chance that the situation could change, and the iceberg could avoid a collision with the island, as much will depend on weather conditions and currents.
At present, it is being tracked by two of Europe’s Sentinel-1 satellites.
Remember when people wanted to tow an iceberg to Cape Town during the ‘Day Zero’ water crisis?
Seems like a lifetime ago.
