Oct 13, 2017

Just two Adelie penguin chicks survived this year's breeding season

Scores of Adelie penguins at Brown Bluff on the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. Photo: Brian Witte / AP

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) will introduce a proposal to set up a Marine Protection Area (MPA) to help the Adelie penguin colony in east Antarctica after all but two chicks starved to death this breeding season, according to the BBC.

The problem: Because extensive ice in the region lasted late into the breeding season, adults in the colony of 36,000 had to travel further than usual to find food for the chicks.

"The region is impacted by environmental changes that are linked to the breakup of the Mertz glacier since 2010," Yan Ropert-Coudert from France's National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) said in a statement. "An [Marine Protection Area] will not remedy these changes but it could prevent further impacts that direct anthropogenic pressures, such as tourism and proposed fisheries, could bring."

The proposal: A marine protection area in which krill fishing would be banned in order to reduce the penguins' competition for their food. It will be raised on Monday at a meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).

Go deeper

Jacob Knutson

Peter Navarro defends hydroxychloroquine use in heated CNN interview

White House economic adviser Peter Navarro defended the use of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus during a CNN interview Monday, highlighting "the possibility" that it has therapeutic efficacy.

Why it matters: Navarro did not deny reporting from Axios' Jonathan Swan that he got into a heated exchange in the White House Situation Room over the weekend with infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci about the drug's prospects against the illness.

Go deeper10 mins ago - Politics & Policy

Caitlin Owens

Special report: Health care workers vs. coronavirus

Photo Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photos: Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images, Bruce Bennett/Getty Images, and Europa Press News/Europa Press via Getty Images

Health care workers are at an especially high risk of catching the coronavirus, because of their prolonged exposure to patients who have it. Making matters worse, the U.S. doesn't have enough of the protective equipment, like masks and gloves, that keeps them safe.

And yet these workers, with loved ones of their own, keep showing up at hospitals across the country, knowing that more Americans than they can possibly care for are depending on them.

Go deeper51 mins ago - Health

Dion Rabouin

Backed by the Fed, bond investors get bullish

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

The Fed's massive injections of liquidity have reopened much of the bond market, and after back-to-back weeks in which more than $100 billion flowed out of bond funds, investors have regained their bearings and now see opportunity.

What's happening: But after the hemorrhaging outflows relented last week, bulls may now be sticking their heads out a bit too far. Junk bond funds took in more than $7 billion for the week ended April 1, according to Refinitiv Lipper, setting a new weekly record.

Go deeper1 hour ago - Economy & Business