The fact that the other colony is well preserved means that the decreased population in the Commonwealth Bay is due to the iceberg and no other factors involved.
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Since then, the penguins have been pressured to make a spherical journey of 120km for meals, stated researchers from the University of New South Wales’ (UNSW) Climate Change Research Centre and New Zealand’s West Coast Penguin Trust.
Floating sea ice near the coast became trapped by the giant iceberg, slowly closing up all access to open water and the penguins’ food source. The colony could disappear entirely in 20 years if sea ice isn’t able to break up the huge ice berg.
Researchers explained that ever since the iceberg B09B has crashed into the Commonwealth Bay, East Antarctica, the distance that the Adélie penguins must cover to find food has “dramatically increased”. She said it was “heart wrenching” to see the impact on the penguins, with researchers walking “amongst thousands of freeze-dried chicks from the previous season and hundreds of abandoned eggs”.
The penguin colony at Cape Denison was first documented a century ago by Australian explorer Sir Douglas Mawson.
The landlocked forces the penguins to waddle 60 km to the cost to find food and many of them do not succeed in the search, making the large travel danger for the penguins.
In sharp contrast, the penguins residing in the eastern tassel of the Bay, just eight kilometers from the ice edge were flourishing.
“The ones that we noticed at Cape Denison have been extremely docile, torpid, virtually unaware of your existence. We saw lots of dead birds on the ground…it’s just heartbreaking to see”. “They stay where they are when breeding is successful, and as soon as they fail one or two years in a row, they move away to start in another spot”, he added.
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“Our results have important implications for wider East Antarctic if the current increasing sea ice trend continues”, they add.
