southern ocean

Scientific research and conservation need more cash. That’s sadly usually true. It’s especially the case in the Antarctic where research is expensive but absolutely essential given the massive environmental changes happening there.

But although new streams of funding should welcomed for Antarctic research, it’s also important to question where that funding comes from. After all, there’s just a sliver of a chance that some seemingly good PR is actually a mind-bogglingly cynical act of greenwashing.

It’s World Penguin Day today, April 25^th, and I simply can’t imagine a world that didn’t have penguins in it. So in order to celebrate our funny fine-flippered friends I thought it would be good to pull together some fun facts about penguins. Some are fun, some are facts, and some are both at once. 

It’s World Penguin Day today, April 25^th, and I simply can’t imagine a world that didn’t have penguins in it. So in order to celebrate our funny fine-flippered friends I thought it would be good to pull together some fun facts about penguins. Some are fun, some are facts, and some are both at once.

Antarctica is special. It’s home to globally recognisable species that we, as a planet, value. It’s a continent apart from all others, and it’s a place we have all pledged to protect for the future.

But this isolated continent is surrounded by a sea, the Southern Ocean, that doesn’t yet have the protection it needs.

It’s a sad day, but I think I have run out of krill puns. Well, I’ve been banging on about this for a few years now, and since Happy Feet 2 basically unleashed every krill joke possible, courtesy of Matt Damon and Brad Pitt, there’s not a lot left.

And that, dear readers, is my worry about krill itself.

In this day and age, commercial whaling is out-of-date and should be out-of-the-question. Sadly it isn’t, but maybe the news that the Japanese whaling fleet might be cutting short its stay in the Southern ocean is cause for some optimism.