The world s largest iceberg is drifting dangerously close to South Georgia Island, where millions of penguins and seals are breeding.
If the iceberg gets stuck in the surrounding shallow waters it could cut off the animals access to the ocean.
If penguins and seals have to travel across the 30-mile iceberg to get food from the ocean, many of their young will starve.
The world s largest iceberg might crash into an island populated by penguins and seals, which could cause mass starvation among the animals young.
The iceberg, dubbed A68a, broke off from an Antarctic ice shelf in 2017. It has been drifting north ever since, and now it s dangerously close to South Georgia Island. The area is a haven to millions of gentoo, macaroni, and king penguins, as well as fur seals and elephant seals.
giant iceberg A68a.
The 3,900-sq-km behemoth is currently drifting offshore of the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia where it threatens to run aground.
If that happens it could make life extremely difficult for the wildlife haven s penguins and seals as they go about foraging for fish and krill.
The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) will lead the expedition.
The researchers will approach A68a in the Royal Research Ship James Cook.
They ll use robotic underwater vehicles and sampling instruments to see how the frozen mass is influencing its environment.
Big bergs change the temperature of the sea around them and introduce huge volumes of fresh water as they melt. This affects conditions for all marine life - from the simplest planktonic organisms all the way up to the biggest creatures in the ocean, the whales.
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