Unusual 2020 Weddell Seal Pupping Season Comes to an End

10 December 2020

Unusual 2020 Weddell Seal Pupping Season Comes to an End

The sea ice of Erebus Bay, Antarctica near McMurdo Station is now closed to further sea ice travel due to large cracks developing in the sea ice. Fortunately the 2020 Weddell Seal Population and Mass Dynamics Study field team was able to retrieve vital seal recording and logging instruments, complete one last seal survey, and obtain weights on the last group of pups.

Photos, above, courtesy Natalie Brechtel and Ben Adkison of McMurdo Field Safety & Training, show changes in the crack in the sea ice near Turtle Rock one week apart.

We hope to post one last 2020 field update from the Weddell seal study field team soon, with further information on this season's Weddell population, and number of pups born.

- Mary Lynn Price

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Weddell Seal Science

10 December 2020