Field Video From Parker Levinson:
Field Report From Dr. Jay Rotella:
Although the field work was slow to get going this year due to weather-related delays in the team’s arrival, things are now going well. The team has put in flagged routes, which are essential to safe travel, to nearly every seal pupping colony, and hopes to complete the final few stretches today or tomorrow.
The past few days have had mostly sunny skies with relatively light winds and modest temperatures
(5-12 degrees F), which has allowed the team to do a lot of work with the seals. The peak of pup births is here, so as we get caught up over the next week or so, we’ll have much better information on how many pups will be produced by the Erebus Bay Weddell seal population this year and how it compares to the high levels that have occurred in recent years.
The sea ice extends a fair bit further north beyond the study area and the sea ice is quite thick this season. Some of the colonies that typically have a lot of mother-pup pairs appear to hold more modest numbers this year, while some of the more northerly, outlying colonies seem to have more.
We’re looking forward to learning how things turn out as one of our goals is to learn what makes the population go up and down the way it does. So, years with different conditions and different numbers are key to making progress on that question. We’re also very interested in seeing if the number of mothers that are born outside the study area is lower this year when the more extensive ice provides more alternate pupping sites for such females. More to come in the weeks ahead.
- Jay Rotella, Lead Scientist and Professor, Montana State University Ecology Department
Comments