Most of the videos I work on for the Weddell seal population study project are short-format videos under 5 minutes.  However, I have had the pleasure of editing a slightly longer 15 minute video about the Weddell seals of Erebus Bay and the Weddell seal population research project.  A preview of this new video screened at the Mission Theater in Portland, OR at a public special cultural event associated with the 2012 Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) annual conference.

This video incorporates footage and images from numerous members of the Weddell seal research team over the years, including Jay Rotella, Bob Garrott, Don Siniff, Gillian Hadley, Glenn Stauffer, Jen Mannas, Jessica Farrer, Jesse DeVoe, Thierry Chambert, and some fantastic underwater footage by contributing divers Henry Kaiser, Rob Robbins, and Steve Rupp, as well as some of my footage.  The opening music is a composition by Weddell seal research field team member Darren Roberts, with piano by Rachel Carlson.

Footage includes lots of Weddell moms and pups interacting, and a Weddell seal giving birth on the sea ice. 

Interviews on location in Antarctica with Jay Rotella, Bob Garrott, and Thierry Chambert help tell the story of these resilient animals, and how they fared when a massive iceberg blocked access to some of their pupping areas this past decade.  This subject is the basis of the recent scientific paper, "Environmental extremes versus ecological extremes: impact of a massive iceberg on the population dynamics of a high-level
Antarctic marine predator," that is now available online at the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences website.

Hope you enjoy the video!

– Mary Lynn Price

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