The ice edge and fast ice on the southern edge of this polynya are situated over the continental shelf, one of the few place in our study area with ice-covered shelf habitats, due to this year's sea ice distribution. This zone is inhabited mostly by Weddell seals, but we also observed crabeater seals, some at surprising distances from the open water. Although Weddell seals were found in low densities throughout the fast ice, several aggregations of up to 40 seals were observed, including a probable breeding colony located in Siniff Bay, named for our colleague Prof. Donald Siniff. To date, we have flown 17 helicopter surveys which covered over 4500 km during 27 flight hours. During the flights we counted approximately 3000 seals and 3700 emperor penguins.
Initial analyses demonstrate large gradients in the density of seals and penguins.
We have deployed, and are receiving data from satellite transmitters on a total of 5 crabeater seal pups and 3 Ross seals. Several partially molted adult crabeater seals have been observed, which means that we may be able to begin deploying satellite transmitters on them in the next few weeks. The focus this last week has been the collection of samples from seals along the coastal polynya east of the Ross Ice Shelf. This effort required a different set of logistics to reach the seals, most of which were back from the ice edge on fast ice. While we worked with a our first leopard seal and several crabeater seals, most of the effort has focused on Weddell seals and has utilized using both sleds and helicopter support.