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Weddell Sea Facts

Weddell Sea Facts
The Weddell Sea is located in the Southern Ocean, covered mostly by a permanent and massive ice shelf. The sea is within three territorial claims, by Britain, Chile, and by Argentina. The Weddell Sea is believed to have the cleanest water of any sea, and in 1986 it was deemed to have the clarity of distilled water.
Interesting Weddell Sea Facts:
The ice shelf covering most of Weddell Sea is called the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf.
Weddell Sea covers an area of approximately 2.8 million square kilometers.
The Weddell Sea is 1,200 miles across at its widest point.
Weddell Sea was named after King George IV by James Weddell - a Scottish sailor, in 1823. In 1900 the name was changed to Weddell Sea in honor of James.
There are abundant populations of seals and whales in the Waddell Sea. These include crabeater seals, leopard seals, minke whales, humpback whales, killer whales and the Weddell Seal.
The most dominant penguin species in the Weddell Sea is the Adelie penguin. There are at least 100,000 pairs (male and female partners) living on Paulet Island.
A colony of emperor penguins was discovered south of Snowhill Island in the Weddell Sea in recent years.
There are two gyres (large systems of circulating oceanic currents) in the Southern Ocean. One is the Weddell Gyre, located in the Weddell Sea.
The waters of Weddell Sea are considered to be treacherous and myths exist that suggest there are mermen with green hair living in its waters. Many ships have been destroyed by ice and flash freezes in Weddell Sea over the years.


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