It's now Springtime in Antarctica! Weddell seal moms are making their way back to the many Weddell seal pupping colonies in Erebus Bay to give birth and raise their new pups. The Weddell Seal Population Study field research team is now about to begin traveling from Bozeman, Montana to McMurdo Station, Antarctica, the largest of the three US Antarctic bases. The 2024 Weddell field season is now underway!
This cool new logo and sticker for the B-009 Antarctica Weddell Seal Field Team
was designed by graphic artist Clara Maseman and 2024 field team member
Sophia Rotella for the 2024 Antarctica Field Research Season.
Over the next several months we'll bring you news from The Ice as the pupping season progresses, and introduce the entire 2024 research field team. We'll post lots of photos, videos, and maps throughout. And we'll showcase some of the latest findings of this now 56-year-long population study, one of the longest running population studies ever of a long-lived mammal. This long-term Antarctic marine mammal population dataset is unique in the scientific community.
In the photo above, five women researchers with the Weddell Seal Population Study hold the flag of Antarctica in this photo by Lead Scientist Prof. Jay Rotella. From left to right, they are the amazing Dr. Kaitlin Macdonald who recently received her PhD from Montana State University on this project; Sophia Rotella who recently graduated from MSU and is deploying for her first time this season, and also handles the outreach project's viral Instagram page; Parker Levinson who is now a PhD student extraordinaire with the Study, and this season's returning Field Crew Leader; Dr. Elizabeth Flesch who is a Montana State University post-doctoral researcher working on Weddell population genomics; and Dr. Nancy Chen of the University of Rochester (NY) who is working with Dr. Flesch on Weddell seal population genomics. We'll be posting about some of their work and preliminary findings as well in this season's field blog.
So, here we go with the 2024 Erebus Bay Weddell Seal Pupping Season! Please stay tuned...
This Weddell seal short video was an Official Selection at the
San Diego UnderSea Film Exhibition a number of years ago, and mentions
some of the questions back then to which the Weddell Population Study
researchers are now gaining more answers.
Mary Lynn Price
Multimedia Specialist
Weddell Seal Population Study
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