The Balleny Islands are the most remote islands in the Southern Ocean. The islands are uninhabited and they are mainly made up of volcanic rock.

They have a cone shape and are completely covered in ice. The Ballaneys comprise three large islands (Young, Buckle, and Sturge) and numerous islets and stacks. They form a chain that is about a hundred miles (160 km) in length, and straddles the Antarctic Circle. Its highest point is Brown Peak (roughly 6000 feet). Sturge Island is the largest, approximately 20 miles long by 8 miles wide (32 by 13 km).

The islands are heavily glaciated, with cliffs of rock or ice and a few gravel beaches, and are volcanic in origin, although no recent seismic activity has been recorded.

The Balleny Islands are the only truly marine or oceanic islands. Their biological diversity exceeds that of any other site in the Ross Sea region.

In 1966, Sabrina Island, located south-southeast of Buckle Island, was designated a Specially Protected Area (SPA), mostly on account of its large colony of Adélie penguins. An attempt was made in 1999 by New Zealand to extend the SPA to cover the entire archipelago within a sea boundary of 12 nautical miles (22 km). Because of their remote geographical location and the difficulty of making a landing on many of the islands, they have been protected from human activities, but, as a consequence, they are also poorly documented. A comprehensive study of the islands’ vegetation is yet to be conducted.

The islands have at least seven species of breeding bird, four species of seal, and 25 species of echinoderm. These birds include Adélie and chinstrap penguins, Cape petrels, snow petrels, Antarctic petrels, southern fulmars, and Wilson’s storm petrels.

Seals do not breed on the islands, although several species haul out on the islands’ beaches. Weddell seals have been recorded on Row and Borradaile islands, while Weddell, crabeater, and southern elephant seals have been observed on Borradaile Island. Leopard seals have been observed cruising in the offshore waters, probably hunting penguins.

Discovery of the islands occurred on 9 February 1839, when John Balleny of the schooner Eliza Scott and Thomas Freeman of the cutter Sabrina saw them after sailing south from New Zealand in search of new sealing lands.