Bay of Whales

Bay of Whales

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Map depicting the location of the Bay of Whales on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica

The Bay of Whales was a natural ice harbour, or iceport, indenting the front of the Ross Ice Shelf just north of Roosevelt Island, Antarctica, at the southernmost point of the world's ocean. While the Ross Sea stretches considerably further south – encompassing the Gould Coast, located around 320 kilometres (170 nautical miles) from the South Pole – the majority of this expanse is covered by the Ross Ice Shelf, rather than open sea.

Ernest Shackleton named the feature on January 24, 1908, during the Nimrod Expedition, because of the large number of whales seen near this location.

During his quest for the South Pole, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen established a temporary base, which he named Framheim, at the Bay of Whales. The base was used between January 1911 – February 1912, and was named after Amundsen's ship Fram.^[1]

The Bay of Whales was a logistical support base for Richard E. Byrd's first (1928–1930), second (1933–1935) and third expedition (1939–1941)

The configuration of the Bay of Whales continuously changed. A survey by the second Byrd expedition in 1934 determined that the feature lay at the junction of two separate ice systems, the movements of which are influenced by the presence of Roosevelt Island. Commander Glen Jacobsen, USN, who visited aboard the USS Atka in January 1955, found that calving of the ice shelf rendered the iceport temporarily unusable.

The Bay of Whales was entirely eliminated in 1987 when the 154-kilometre-long (83 nmi) Iceberg B-9 broke off from the Ross Ice Shelf.^[2][3]

The Whale Bay Furrows, a series of undersea valleys on the central Ross continental shelf, were named in association with the Bay of Whales.^[4]

• Ice pier
• Atka Iceport
• Erskine Iceport
• Godel Iceport
• Norsel Iceport

78°30′S 164°20′W / 78.500°S 164.333°W / -78.500; -164.333

•  This article incorporates public domain material from "Whales, Bay of". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey.