Journal

To the third graders of St. Leo the Great School in San Jose, California!

A warm hello from the Weddell seal research team in Antarctica!

Glenn, Jesse, and Thierry
Glenn, Jesse, and Thierry -Part of the Weddell Seal Research Team

We are a crew of seven people that have come from all over—from Pennsylvania, Colorado, Vermont, New Mexico, Idaho, New York, and even France! Most of us have been working as wildlife researchers for many years, studying animals like birds, seals, and wolves. One of us is a videographer, which means she makes short movies, and another is a college professor. Some of us have been to Antarctica multiple times, and for some of us, this is our first time!

So what are we doing here in the land of ice and cold known as Antarctica? We are studying Weddell seals, the mammals that live the furthest south.

A Weddell Seal
Weddell Seals only live in Antarctica. They can hold their breath for 40 minutes. They dive to about 2000 feet.

They love swimming and diving in the cold ocean and then getting up on the ice to lounge around. The females also give birth to their babies on top of the ice.

Mommy and Pup
Mommy Seal and her Pup - In a few weeks, the pup will be much bigger and the mommy will be much smaller.
Because they like to hang out on top of the ice, we are able to study them much easier than if they were underwater.

Tagging a pup
The WATER DROP helps Thierry tag a seal so they can keep track of it. What is that smoking mountain in the background?

We are trying to figure out how many Weddell seals there are, how much the mom and baby seals weigh, and why some mom seals have babies and others don’t.

Tagging a Pup
The team with their WATER DROP tags a pup. Every pup gets a tag and its own unique number.

The most interesting part of our job is getting to hang out with the seals all day, watching their behavior and listening to them call and sing. Each seal has a different personality; some seals could care less about us being around, some get angry, some like to moan and call out loud, and some don’t make any noise at all.

A big Weddell Seal
Weddell Seals can live to be about 15. A few get to be 25 or 30 years old. They have pups when they are about 2 or 3 years old.

Your water drop traveled by snowmobile to many seal colonies where we tagged, weighed, and counted all the seals we could.

Water drop and Penguins
The WATER DROP and Jesse find some penguins.

It also got to see a group of Emperor penguins that were sliding on their bellies!

Penguins waddling around
Emperor Penguins are the tallest and heaviest penguins in Antarctica. They can dive to more than 500 feet and they hold their breath for about 18 minutes. They live to be about 20 or so.
Stay warm!

The Weddell Seal Research Team in Antarctica

For more information see - http://inmotion.typepad.com/weddell_seal_science/

I'll visit the researchers and their seals tomorrow.

The rest of the ICE AGED team departed this morning for 2 weeks of work in the field camp at New Harbor.

Details
Author
Tina Sander
Date
Expedition
Antarctic Seafloor Ecology
Weather Summary
It was sunny but the wind has arrived and the clouds are coming back
Temperature
18
Wind Speed
15
Wind Chill
-9

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