2025 Antarctica Field Team Deployment Update

The 2025 Antarctica field team’s deployment to McMurdo Station for the 2025 field season of the Erebus Bay Weddell Seal Population Study is progressing, with most of the field team members now safely in Antarctica and scrambling to get out on the sea ice and up in the air to survey the Erebus Bay Study Area and incoming Weddell seals. More team members en route are now in Christchurch, New Zealand awaiting their flight to McMurdo Station, hopefully tomorrow, to join the team members already in Antarctica.

***New project sticker for the 2025 Field Team, designed by Sophia Rotella.***

Returning Field Team Leader and PhD Student Parker Levinson is heading up the field team again this season, with Montana State University Professor Jay Rotella as Lead Scientist on the project. Collaborating Lead Scientist on the Weddell Seal Population Genomics Study, Dr. Nancy Chen, is deploying as part of field team. Biological Field Technicians this season are Brynn Miller, Colette Webb, Natalie Storm and Thomas Hull, all now in Antarctica, and returning bio tech Nate Jourdonnais in Christchurch, New Zealand awaiting the flight South. We will introduce the entire 2025 Field Team after everyone is on Station at McMurdo.

This Weddell seal population study began in 1968, and was one of the first Antarctica science projects funded by the National Science Foundation, hence the project designation, B-009. Learn more about the history of our project in the History section of our public outreach website, WeddellSealScience.com.

The photo above is of the 1973 Erebus Bay Weddell Seal Population Study field team. All of these individuals have gone on to have very successful careers in various fields of ecology. From left to right in the top row are Don Siniff, Bob Hofman, Doug DeMaster and Dick Reichle, and kneeling in front from left to right are Ron Kirby and Ian Stirling.
***Photo courtesy Don Siniff’s archives.***

Recent harsh weather in Antarctica this year and resulting problematic sea ice conditions in Erebus Bay are particularly challenging this 2025 Antarctica science season. We will go into more detail about these challenges confronting both the Erebus Bay Weddell seals and the field researchers this season in an upcoming post.

Meanwhile, please check out our free multimedia eBook, Weddell Seals; Science, Life History and Population Dynamics for much more information on this long-term Study, doing science in Antarctica, and the amazing Weddell seals that are the focus of our work.

–Mary Lynn Price
Multimedia Specialist
Erebus Bay Weddell Seal Population Study

Weddell Seal Science Field Blog