Lead scientist Dr. Jay Rotella reports that the field team was able to fly on 2 different day trips to the northern side of the Erebus Bay study area. On those two separate days, they were able to tag pups in both the Turks Head Weddell seal pupping colony and at the North Base pupping colony. The field team tagged approximately 110 pups per day up there each day, and so lots of progress has been made now on the northern side of the Erebus Bay Glacier Tongue (EGT) working with helicopter assistance. A huge storm blew out some of the sea ice in the study area just prior to the field team’s arrival at McMurdo Station this season. About half of the Weddell seals the team studies every pupping season are found north of the EGT, as can be seen in this interactive video popup map of the Erebus Bay study area, below. Northern colonies are toward the bottom of this interactive map.

– Mary Lynn Price