Thomas Peschak's Image

Thomas Peschak (Germany/South Africa) comes face to face with a leopard seal in its rapidly disappearing home.

Thomas floated in the distance, waiting for the shy leopard seal to emerge. All around him the ancient ice was melting and streams of air bubbles were fizzing out into the frame.

Not only are leopard seals dependent on sea ice for breeding, moulting and resting, their main prey, penguins and krill, are reliant on it too. The shrinking Antarctic sea ice is allowing fishing boats to move in and harvest vast quantities of krill to satisfy the growing global demand for health supplements and fish food.

A proposed Marine Protected Area would restrict krill fishing and provide a much-needed refuge for wildlife, but as of October 2021 the multilateral body responsible for Antarctic marine conservation failed to reach an agreement.