Danger Islands Misson - November 2025

In November 2025, the Malizia Explorer embarked on her first mission to Antarctica together with researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute, ThINK Jena and the German Environmental Agency. The aim of this mission was to perform the first detailed study of the Danger Islands and gather evidence to make a case that protection could and should be expanded from land to sea.

In 2024, the Antarctic Treaty Parties placed the seven Danger Islands at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula under strict protection, creating Antarctic Specially Protected Area (ASPA) 180. Initiated by Germany and co-proposed by the USA, the protected area is home to around one million breeding pairs of Adélie penguins, making it the largest known population of its kind in the world.

Malizia Explorer joined scientists from the German Environment Agency, the Alfred Wegener Institute and ThINK Jena to study this unique ecosystem and better understand the pressures facing Antarctic biodiversity. Through drone mapping, biodiversity surveys, long-term monitoring and tracking penguin movements at sea, the mission gathered valuable data on the islands and their wildlife. However, the mission was about more than science. The islands themselves are protected, while the surrounding waters, where penguins depend on krill and other marine resources, currently have no equivalent protection. The research therefore also contributes to Germany’s efforts to extend protection from land to sea, making the case that protection is incomplete, if the penguins’ important foraging areas at sea are unprotected.

Read more about the mission below.