Penguins chicks at risk as iceberg blocks sea

TENS of thousands of Antarctic penguin chicks could starve to death in the next few weeks as a huge iceberg blocks access to coastal feeding grounds, a New Zealand official said yesterday.

A 1,200-mile-square iceberg, known as B15A, could also block the sea route used to supply three science stations during the southern hemisphere summer, said chief executive of the government scientific agency Antarctica New Zealand, Lou Sanson.

The iceberg has blocked sea ice flows from McMurdo Sound as it moves at a speed of 1.2 miles a day. US researchers have estimated that B15A contains enough fresh water to supply Egypt's Nile River complex for 80 years, Sanson says.