Special From Antarctica Weddell Population Project field scientist Jesse DeVoe, M.S.:

We were getting pretty nervous with the long deployment delay about the number of pups we might find on the ice when we finally arrived at the [seal pupping] colonies, and how well we'd be able to catch up. But I think we got here just in time. There were some big pups around and a few new ones, but we hadn't missed too much. We had a few big storms in the beginning that kept us from identifying precise birthdays for some of the pups, but quickly the weather improved for long enough that we were able to catch up. Right about when we got our camp pulled to Big Razorback Island, we got in our groove of hitting the north side of the Erebus Glacial Tongue one day and then the south side of the tongue the next, and repeat. That allowed us to keep up with the pupping. We are in the midst of peak pupping now. This season is in a bit of a contrast to last year's record numbers; our projection for the season puts numbers close to the long term average.