The Latest Breaking News from the Southern Ocean

The Albanese government has today declared stronger protections for the waters around Heard Island and McDonald Islands, one of Australia’s wildest, most remote areas. The marine park surrounding the islands will be extended by 310,000 square kilometres, quadrupling its size.

Whales feed for roughly 100 days out of each year; depending on the species, an adult whale may consume 1 to 6 tons of krill in a day.

Antarctic krill – shrimp-like crustaceans that inhabit the icy waters surrounding Antarctica – may be small (around 5cm) but they have an enormous total biomass, similar to that of the global human population. However, while humans pump ever more carbon into the atmosphere, krill are working in reverse. They are…

The Southern Ocean encircling Antarctica is the world’s largest feeding ground for baleen whales – species like humpbacks that filter tiny organisms from seawater for food. In the 20th century, whalers killed roughly 2 million large whales in the Southern Ocean. Some populations, like the Antarctic blue whale, were reduced…

The Southern Ocean is wild and dynamic. It experiences Earth’s strongest winds and largest waves. It is home to city-sized icebergs and the biggest ocean current on the globe, as well as tiny turbulent flows that fit inside a teacup.

This 2023 astronaut photo shows a pair of perfectly aligned "wave clouds" rippling above the Crozet Islands in the Southern Ocean. The unusual patterns are the result of changes in temperature caused by gravity waves.

Australia has a long history of bushfires. The 2019-2020 Black Summer was the worst in recorded history. But was that the worst it could get?

The Southern Ocean, a region critical to Earth’s climate, hosts vast blooms of microscopic ocean plants known as phytoplankton. They form the very basis of the Antarctic food web.

A former fisheries vessel has been bought from the Japanese government by anti-whaling activists for use in the Southern Ocean.

A new $47m vessel is preparing for its maiden voyage in coastal waters, but there are fears the Kangei Maru could one day mean a return to hunting in the Southern Ocean

The Southern Ocean is renowned for having the cleanest air on Earth. But the precise reasons why have remained a mystery, until now.