Don't get confused: sea ice and ice shelves are different things. Sea ice is formed year after year from the freezing ocean water. Ice shelves are the glaciers

Don't get confused: sea ice and ice shelves are different things. Sea ice is formed year after year from the freezing ocean water. Ice shelves are the glaciers (formed from precipitations) that cover the continental plate and extend into water. The ice shelves are definitely disappearing at a record pace. Now the reason why the sea ice is growing is not perfectly understood, but it is hypothesized that the Southern Ocean Circumpolar Current is isolating the continent by preventing warmer water from reaching the sea ice zone, and that the decreased salinity of water near the surface (due to the melting shelves) favors sea ice formation. Sea ice melts every year. It has little influence on sea levels or global warming. Ice shelves, on the other hand, are much more dangerous.