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My time in Antarctica has come to an end. An important message, please read ❄️👇🏻
🧵1/n
Emily G Cunningham MBE
10.9K posts
Emily G Cunningham MBE
@EG_Cunningham
- I saw orcas!!!!! In Antarctica!!! 😁😁 Overjoyed. Overwhelmed! An encounter as brief as it was wonderful. A moment I had dreamed of my whole life. A moment I’ll remember forever.
00:00 - Happy Sunday from Antarctica! The view from my porthole 🚢
- Replying to @EG_Cunningham🧵12/n (ENDS) I will be sailing north now for another few weeks, before disembarking and taking a much needed rest. From there, it’s back to the ocean conservation fight. Recharged and ready to win. Bring it on 💪🏻 🐋 P.S. I’m looking for my next opportunity 👋🏻
- Hello from Antarctica! 😁🐧 After a lifetime of dreaming, I can’t believe I’m finally here.
- Replying to @EG_Cunningham🧵11/n As I sail north and stare out at the vast ocean blue, I am more certain than ever that we have to do everything in our power to save what we can. This is the fight of my life. The fight of all of our lives. The fight for all of our lives.
- Replying to @EG_Cunningham🧵4/n It’s only now that I’ve left that I can really begin to process my Antarctic experience. And only now that I’ve left can I let myself acknowledge the canary in the coal mine… This wonderful place is dying.
- Replying to @EG_Cunningham🧵9/n EVERY SINGLE SAMPLE we took in Antarctica as part of our microplastic research contained plastic microfibres. I found plastic from tourists in the penguin colonies. We even found a big piece of plastic on the seabed.
- Replying to @EG_Cunningham🧵 3/n It’s like being in a wildlife documentary: penguins waddle around your feet, seals pop up next to your boat, and whale blows punctuate the waters in every direction.
- Replying to @EG_Cunningham🧵5/n The Antarctic Peninsula is warming 5x faster than the global average. Whilst I was there, Antarctic sea ice extent hit a record-low and much of Antarctica was warmer than average.
- Replying to @EG_Cunningham🧵 2/n Antarctica is awe, wonder and wildlife abundance at a scale I assumed was confined to the history books; all set within a landscape so spectacular it’s nigh on impossible to take it in. #Antarctica
- Replying to @EG_Cunningham🧵6/n This has led to a reduction in krill. Krill is at the heart of the Antarctic ecosystem. Less krill means less food for those penguins, whales, and seals. (Footage from our submarine)
00:00 - Replying to @EG_Cunningham🧵8/n These warming waters are also opening the doors to invaders. Naturally there are no crabs in Antarctica, but king crabs are slowly invading. Invasive species will irrevocably change the beautiful seabed communities I was so lucky to see from our submarine.
00:00 - Replying to @EG_Cunningham🧵7/n New research has shown that the reduction in krill is already leading to lower reproductive rates in baleen whales. 🐋 The growing commercial krill fishery is exacerbating this problem. 🦐