Access to the Big Razorback Weddell Seal Pupping Colony has been limited to helicopter travel only this 2025 Field Season in Erebus Bay, Antarctica. Finally able to visit this Dellbridge island to record and tag seals, Lead Scientist Prof. Jay Rotella and PhD Student and Field Team Leader Parker Levinson report on location in these two video reports.

Big Razorback Island is one of the Dellbridge Islands in Erebus Bay, Antarctica that are the remnants of an ancient volcano caldera very near the southern most active volcano, Mt. Erebus. Big Razorback was long the site of the project’s remote sea ice camp in previous field seasons. This 2025 Field Season the team has been unable to access the Dellbridge Islands due to much of the sea ice having been blown out in a huge storm shortly before the 2025 Field Team arrived. Thanks to the great support of the US Antarctic Program (USAP) at McMurdo Station, the Field Team is now able to access these more northerly Weddell Seal Pupping Colonies by helicopter drop-off and pickup in this part of the Erebus Bay Study Area.

To get a better sense of the location of Big Razorback Weddell Seal Pupping Colony, here again is the interactive video popup map of the Study Area prepared by Prof. Jay Rotella with colony videos by Mary Lynn Price and Jeremy Schmidt. Big Razorback Island is located just below the tip of the Erebus Glacial Tongue.

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– Mary Lynn Price