By the way - here's the latest. I can't bear it...
Iceberg cuts the flow of food to baby penguins
Penguins trying to raise chicks are in icy straits because an enormous hunk of ice is separating them from food near Antarctica's McMurdo Sound.
Scientists said Tuesday the iceberg called B15A is about 1,200 square miles -- so big it has blocked wind and water currents that break up ice floes in McMurdo Sound. That has led to an abundance of ice, which could doom tens of thousands of penguin chicks in coming weeks.
The ice buildup has cut off their parents' access to waters where they catch fish, said Lou Sanson, chief executive of the government scientific agency Antarctica New Zealand.
Two Adelie penguin colonies in the area that scientists have been studying for 25 years are threatened.
One is on Cape Royds, where 3,000 breeding pairs now face a 112-mile round trip to fetch food for their chicks. The parents cannot survive the long journey without eating much of the food they have gathered for their young, Sanson said.
Likewise, scientists fear that only about 10 percent of the 50,000 breeding pairs of Adelie penguins at nearby Cape Bird will rear a chick this season, Sanson said. Adult penguins there face a 60-mile round trip across the ice to reach open water and food.
The iceberg, located between McMurdo Sound and Franklin Island to the south, is moving north toward the sound at a rate of about 1.2 miles a day. The concern is it will stick on the Ross Ice Shelf, which forms part of the sound, causing still more problems.
...just seems so unfair.
"Two drifters off to see the world. There's such a lot of world to see. . ."