Dragons of the Bellingshausen Sea

Dragons of the Bellingshausen Sea

On December 8, Sentinel-2 captured a creature (Figure 1)in the Ronne Entrance bay, just southwest of the Monteverdi Peninsula.
The specimen corresponds to the typical Antarctic dragon (Draco antarcticus vulgaris). Although they are a natural part of the Antarctic marine fauna, this species is rarely detected by satellite instruments. They usually hide from observers and remain scattered in the form of brash sea ice, ice floes, and icebergs along the coastline or fast sea ice edge.
Under favourable atmospheric and oceanographic conditions, however, these organisms may aggregate into a coherent form, and “materialize,” coming together as a whole, presumably either to engage in predatory behaviour targeting cetaceans or to simply frolic on the surface.
The specimen observed (Figure 1) appears to be a juvenile, not yet fully grown, with a total length of only around 62 km. It is moving in a south-easterly direction toward Eklund and DeAtley islands.
This southeastern part of Bellingshausen Sea, where the Ronne Entrance is located, is almost untouched by human activity, so the dragons feel comfortable and undisturbed here.
Global warming is having a positive effect on their population. For example, in the last two days since the dragon sighting, Sentinel-2 sensors have registered two more specimens (Figure 2, ~33km long and Figure 3, ~41km long), that suddenly appeared in the same area and then disappeared just as unexpectedly.

Further reading

Ronne Entrance (Wikipedia)
Bahía Ronne (Wikipedia, Spanish)
DeAtley Island (Wikipedia)
Stange Sound (Wikipedia)
Península Antárctica Map (Wikipedia, Spanish)

Books

Ernest Drake – Dragonology: The Complete Book of Dragons
Matt Doeden – Dragonatomy- Illustrated Scientific Field Guide to Dragons
Isabelle V Busch – Theoretical Dragon Anatomy: Structure & Function

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

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