The 2012 Weddell seal pupping season in Erebus Bay is on track for possibly another record setting birth year.  As of today, the field research team has tagged 538 Weddell seal pups in the Erebus Bay study area Weddell seal colonies.

At many of the seal colonies, such as the Big Razorback Island colony in the image below, the moms and pups can be seen all about on the ice surrounding the tide cracks, where the frozen sea ice meets the shorelines here in Erebus Bay. 

During the past two pupping seasons, the Weddell seal population study project reported record numbers of new pups born in the study area since the project began studying this population in the late 1960s.

– Mary Lynn Price