Photo: Dr. Brent Stewart (HSWRI, left) and Dr. Jean-Louis Tisson (head of the Belgian science team) sign out aboard the RVIB Palmer prior to leaving the ship for on-ice research activities.The last two days we have had fairly obnoxious weather with huge NE winds and blowing snow, obscuring visibility. We've been 'drifting' SW with the floe at about 0.5 to 0.8 knots and are now at 70S,93.5W--back to where we were about a week or more ago.
Winds died this morning a bit and blowing snow was down to just the area within 1-2 feet of the surface so it was safe for some limited on-ice operations. I'm planning to help the geophysics team with re-measuring a few 300m lines for snow depth and ice thickness in the a.m. and then will go over to the Patria site to check on the crabeater seal triad (male, female, pup) in the afternoon. I've been spending virtually all day in the ice tower. Lots to see as we approach the continental shelf including at least one minke whale, several giant petrels, some Antarctic and snow petrels, one slender-billed prion, and now about eight crabeater seal breeding pairs within 3-4 mile radius of the ship,including at least three with pups. The pair nearest the ship (Danco site) have now been hauled out continuously for 16 days and no pup so I'm thinking that the female is not pregnant and am considering other reasons for this long-fasting haul out.
A female leopard seal that appears to be pregnant hauled out about 600 m from the ship early yesterday and slept all day until just about sunset (2200 hrs) and then went back into the water...just about the time that most crabeater seals are in the water and beginning to feed. I'm hoping that she hauls out again tomorrow closer to the ship and stays around for a few days. bs
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