Press release

Southern Ocean
A unique series of measurements taken over several years in the Antarctic Ocean provide new findings about the daily vertical migration of zooplankton communities: scientists of the Thünen [...] Thünen Institute of Sea Fisheries in Hamburg and the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven observed changes during the year and between years. The Antarctic zooplankton is the main source of food for many [...] many fish and whale species, including the largest mammal in the world, the blue whale.

different types of killer whales live in the Southern Ocean. They are known to differ in feeding ecology and appearance. However, little is known about the distribution and behaviour of these different [...] whale ecotypes. To answer these questions, scientists monitor the whales’ communication with specific underwater sound recorders. However, so far nobody knew, which calls the different ecotypes are using

landmass, sending up to 150 times the flow of all the world’s rivers clockwise around the frozen continent. It connects all the other oceans, and is thought to play a key role in regulating natural climate swings [...] Southern Ocean
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current is the planet’s most powerful and arguably most important. It is the only one to flow clear around the globe without getting diverted by any landmass [...] swings that have repeatedly swept the earth for millions of years. But much is still not known about how it works, including how it might now respond to human-induced climate change.

little about the life of the world’s second-largest whale. That makes the findings of researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and the Johann [...] Antarctic Peninsula
During the era of commercial whaling, fin whales were hunted so intensively that only a small percentage of the population in the Southern Hemisphere survived, and even today, marine [...] where in the peak month of May, so many fin whale vocalizations can be heard that the individual calls merge into a veritable chorous of sound, as the research team now reports in the journal Royal Society

filmed thousands of nests of icefish of the species Neopagetopsis ionah on the seabed. The density of the nests and the size of the entire breeding area suggest a total number of about 60 million icefish [...] breeding at the time of observation. These findings provide support for the establishment of a Marine Protected Area in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. A team led by Autun Purser from the Alfred [...] Fascinating discovery
Near the Filchner Ice Shelf in the south of the Antarctic Weddell Sea, a research team has found the world's largest fish breeding area known to date. A towed camera system ph

Spectrogram of 20060419-0814_PALAOA (Photo: OZA AWI) A silent ocean Southern Ocean with sea ice (Photo: AWI) The Southern Ocean is one of the last pristine areas of the world’s oceans. Only few fishing and [...] Examples of underwater sounds in the polar oceans Map of the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean with all recording positions marked in red. (Photo: OZA AWI) The sound snippets below illustrate some [...] frequently in the vicinity of Elephant Island, off the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, where the 20 Hz pulse also often contains a higher frequency component around 89 Hz. Spectrogram of 20130705-

concept for the use of the caught mitten crabs. One goal is to develop a long-term financing concept for the expansion and permanent operation of the traps. Another topic will be the development of the necessary [...] feed on other crustaceans as well. In addition to the growth rate of the animals, we also focus on the digestibility of the feed. The prototype of the trap has been in Belgium since 2019 (Photo: Alfre [...] Successful control of invasive mitten crabs with an innovative trap concept The mitten crab is on the IUCN's list of the world's 100 most dangerous invasive species. In Germany, the crab is found in large

and study the local influences of the sea, the ice and the atmosphere on the Weddell Sea and global processes. August - October 2008 – RV Polarstern is the first research vessel in the world to circumnavigate [...] care is still fit for the trip to the ice. Birthday spends the research icebreaker in the vastness of Antarctica. The public can visit the ship in June, before it traveled the southern hemisphere for a year [...] During the Polarstern’s 29th Antarctic expedition, the researchers on board investigate the status of the Antarctic ecosystem after the polar winter, as well as the causes of differences in the development

Marine Protected Area The Weddell Sea lies in the Atlantic sector of the Antarctic, to the east of the Antarctic Peninsula. It is one of the few remaining marine regions in the world that are largely untouched [...] Protected Areas? With an area of 2.2 million square kilometres, the Weddell Sea MPA ( area west of the Prime Meridian ) would be the largest MPA in the world. The declared goal of the United Nations is to protect [...] exploration of the southern continent and its waters for all time. To define more precisely how the living resources of Antarctic waters could be used, the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine