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  3. Antarctica

Antarctica

Antarctica

November to March

49

Documented species

25

Parks and reserves

2

Dive sites

Natural phenomena in Antarctica

  • Emperor penguins raising their chicks — April to August (arrival, laying and incubation; chicks fledge between December and January)

Parks and reserves

Diving and snorkelling

Species documented in Antarctica

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49 species found

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Based on what we already know about Antarctica.

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ASPA 169

Amanda Bay

One of the largest known emperor penguin breeding colonies in East Antarctica

See park
ASMA 1

Admiralty Bay

Managed jointly by four Latin American and European countries with bases on its shores, around the largest bay on King George Island

See park
ASPA 173

Terra Nova Bay

A critical winter refuge for the Antarctic icefish, a family of fish with no haemoglobin in the blood, adapted to extreme cold

See park
Historic Site and Monument / ASPA

Cape Adare

The largest Adélie penguin colony in the world and the first permanent building ever raised in Antarctica (1899)

See park
ASPA 124

Cape Crozier

The setting of "The Worst Journey in the World", an almost suicidal 1911 expedition to collect emperor penguin eggs in the depths of the polar winter

See park
Historic Site and Monument / ASPA

Cape Evans

The base hut of Robert Falcon Scott's fateful Terra Nova expedition (1910-1913), from which he never returned alive

See park
ASPA

Cape Hallett

A former joint New Zealand-United States research station of the Cold War, dismantled and restored to its natural state in the 1970s

See park
ASPA (Antarctic Specially Protected Area) 121

Cape Royds

The southernmost Adélie penguin colony in the world, beside Shackleton's hut of 1908

See park
ASPA 149

Cape Shirreff

One of the longest-running monitoring programmes for Antarctic fur seal and chinstrap penguin on the continent, under way since 1965

See park
ASPA 172

Blood Falls (Taylor Glacier)

A subglacial spring of water reddened by iron oxide, flowing continuously from beneath the ice for more than a million years

See park
ASMA 6

Larsemann Hills

One of the greatest concentrations of permanent research stations from several countries in an ice-free area of East Antarctica

See park
ASPA

Avian Island

One of the densest and most diverse seabird colonies on the Antarctic peninsula on a minimal area of ground

See park
ASMA 4

Deception Island

An active volcano whose flooded caldera forms a natural harbour where ships can sail literally inside the crater

See park
Site of historic importance (no formal ASPA designation)

Elephant Island

Where the 22 men of Shackleton's Endurance expedition survived more than four months awaiting rescue in 1916

See park
ASPA

Signy Island

One of the longest-running long-term ecological research programmes in Antarctica, running since 1947

See park
Marine Protected Area

Ross Sea (Marine Protected Area)

The largest marine protected area on the planet, agreed after years of international negotiation between 24 countries and the European Union

See park
ASPA 167

Vestfold Hills (Hawker Island)

One of the few places in East Antarctica with permanent hypersaline lakes that never freeze over completely

See park
ASPA 168

Mount Harding (Grove Mountains)

One of the few almost entirely ice-free granite massifs in the deep interior of East Antarctica

See park
ASPA 170

Marion Nunataks (Charcot Island)

Isolated nunataks (rock peaks emerging from the ice) in one of the least visited areas of the western Antarctic Peninsula

See park
ASPA 126

Byers Peninsula

One of the largest ice-free areas in the South Shetlands, with 60-million-year-old plant fossil beds

See park
ASMA 1

Fildes Peninsula

One of the greatest concentrations of permanent research stations from several countries in the whole of Antarctica, with a working airport

See park
Marine Protected Area

South Orkney Islands Southern Shelf

The first high-seas marine protected area ever declared, agreed by international consensus in 2009

See park
ASPA 171

Ardley Island

A protected nesting area beside one of the greatest concentrations of international research stations in Antarctica

See park
ASPA

Edmonson Point

A mixed Adélie and emperor penguin colony studied continuously since the nearby Italian Zucchelli base was set up in 1985

See park
ASMA (Antarctic Specially Managed Area) 2

McMurdo Dry Valleys

The largest ice-free system in Antarctica; the coldest and driest desert on the planet, used by NASA as a Mars analogue

See park
Polar volcanic

Deception Island

A flooded volcanic caldera entered by sailing through a narrow breach, Neptune's Bellows. Geothermal activity warms the water locally at some points in Whalers Bay.

See dive site
Polar fjord

Paradise Harbour

A spectacular bay ringed by glaciers; reckoned one of the most extreme and most beautiful dives on the planet.

See dive site
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Endangered

Shortfin Mako

Isurus oxyrinchus

Page 5 of 5
Where to see Petrels in Antarctica15 species
Where to see Southern Elephant Seal in Antarctica10 species
ParkAmanda Bay
DivingDeception Island