A stunning collection of oceanic photography documenting the world’s last pristine ocean. Due to its remoteness and harsh weather, Antarctica’s Ross Sea remained free from human interference until 1996, when commercial fishing discovered it. Now that fishery removes 3,000 tons of fish annually, threatening to destroy the world’s last intact ecosystem. The Last Ocean organization started in 2004, joining scientists and environmental groups in a campaign to have the entire Ross Sea designated as an international marine protected area. One of the founding members of The Last Ocean is John Weller, whose photographs from the Ross Sea were collected during four trips to the Antarctic, including a four-month stay at McMurdo and Cape Royds, home of the southernmost penguin colony in the world. Offering a rare glimpse into life at the edge of the world—from Emperor and Adélie penguins to silverfish, seals, and minke whales—Weller takes the reader on an unprecedented journey above and below the ocean surface. The Last Ocean is more than stunningly beautiful photography. It is a story central to our own: our struggle to sustain a population in a changing climate and with exponentially increasing pressures on world resources.

With stunning footage of Antarctica's unique landscapes and wild life, The Last Ocean profiles the international battle over commercial fishing in the Ross Sea, the last pristine ocean ecosystem on earth.. The Ross Sea is a vast, icy landscape that teems with life -- whales, seals and penguins carving out a place on the very edge of existence. This 'living laboratory' is one of the last places where the delicate balance of nature still prevails, largely untouched by humans. But an international fishing fleet has recently made its way to the Ross Sea, targeting the highly lucrative Antarctic Toothfish, sold as Chilean Sea Bass around the world.. Californian ecologist Dr. David Ainley has studied the Ross Sea's unique ecosystem for more than forty years and knows that unless fishing is stopped, the natural balance will be lost forever. He rallies fellow scientists and builds a global campaign to protect this last pristine marine ecosystem.. Featuring top scientists, including Dr. Sylvia Earle and Dr. Daniel Pauly, as well as international political leaders, the film examines both the science and politics behind the debate over preserving Earth's last truly wild ocean.

This wonderfully written book tells of the first Herculean expeditions to Antarctica, from astronomer Edmond Halley's 1699 voyage in the Paramore to the sealer John Balleny's 1839 excursion in the Eliza Scott, all in search of land, glory, fur, science, and profit. Life was harsh: crews had poor provisions and inadequate clothing, and scurvy was a constant threat. With unreliable--often homemade--charts, these intrepid explorers sailed in the stormy waters of the Southern Ocean below the Convergence, that sea frontier marking the boundary between the freezing Antarctic waters and the warmer sub-Antarctic seas. These men were the first to discover and exploit a new continent, which was not the verdant southern island they had imagined but an inhospitable expanse of rock and ice, ringed by pack ice and icebergs: Antarctica.

The era of the exploration of the World Ocean is not yet over: some areas still lack an adequate number of observations. The relationships between the physical, chemical and biological processes, which sustain the life on this planet, are not yet fully understood. In short, knowledge of the oceans is still far from satisfactory. This book covers an important period in the study of one of the last investigated areas of the World Ocean: the Ross Sea, Antarctica. During the 1990s, long-term experiments were conducted in this area as part of the Climatic Long-term Interaction for the Mass balance in Antarctica (CLIMA) project of the Italian National Programme for Antarctic Research (PNRA), providing a wealth of oceanographic information. This book is an outcome of the CLIMA field obser vations and international collaborations with the most important programmes in the Ross Sea-Southern Ocean area. It contributes to the st!ldies of the spatial and temporal variability of Ross Sea water masses and circulation and their relation ship with the Southern Ocean circulation. A comprehensive review of historical data is offered, and new data sets are analysed. The studies presented in this book show that much progress has been achieved during the last decade, but large gaps in our understanding of the physical processes in the Ross Sea are still to be filled. However, these studies contribute significantly to the investigation of some specific aspects regarding the circula tion of the main water masses.

The sea ice surrounding Antarctica has increased in extent and concentration from the late 1970s, when satellite-based measurements began, until 2015. Although this increasing trend is modest, it is surprising given the overall warming of the global climate and the region. Indeed, climate models, which incorporate our best understanding of the processes affecting the region, generally simulate a decrease in sea ice. Moreover, sea ice in the Arctic has exhibited pronounced declines over the same period, consistent with global climate model simulations. For these reasons, the behavior of Antarctic sea ice has presented a conundrum for global climate change science. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop in January 2016, to bring together scientists with different sets of expertise and perspectives to further explore potential mechanisms driving the evolution of recent Antarctic sea ice variability and to discuss ways to advance understanding of Antarctic sea ice and its relationship to the broader ocean-climate system. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Icebergs dot the ocean throughout the stormy seas of Antarctica. Their multi-hued blue coloration and abstract ice patterns are a wonderful subject for creative photography.A series of my iceberg images were awarded in the Photo District News Photo Annual in the 'Stock Photography' genre. I've built upon that series here with a selection of images published in a square 18x18cm book that reveals the beauty of the otherworldly icescapes of the Southern Ocean.

Surveys atmospheric, oceanic and cryospheric processes, present and past conditions, and changes in polar environments.