Marine Vertebrate Ecology Lab

Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) can tell us about the health of the Southern Ocean because they eat Antarctic toothfish (Dissostichus mawsoni, which we fish for and sell as “Chilean seabass”), and because they rely on sea ice to live on, which is likely to decline as the climate continues to warm. This project will focus on learning about how seals in the Ross Sea – the largest marine protected area in the world – have been doing over the past ten years; what environmental conditions cause instability in their populations; and how these seals are likely to do in the future with a constantly changing environment.