Photo Credit: Steven Profaizer (inset: Mary Lynn Price)

Photo Credit: Steven Profaizer/Antarctic Photo Library

Bob Garrott prepares to tag, weigh and document a Weddell seal pup near Big Razorback Island.

Every year beginning in October, Weddell seals gather in Antarctica’s Erebus Bay to give birth and raise their pups. And every austral summer for the past 42 years, a research team returns to Erebus Bay to gather new population data on these unique animals, representing one of the longest field investigations of a long-lived mammal in existence. Videographer Mary Lynn Price will document some of the researchers’ work directly from the field on her video blog: Weddell Seal Science . In 2008, she visited McMurdo Station and shot a series of videos about Women Working in Antarctica .

The research project is funded by the National Science Foundation through the U.S. Antarctic Program . Co-principal investigators are Robert Garrott and Jay Rotella , professors in the Department of Ecology at Montana State University , and Donald Siniff , professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota . Project Web site: Weddell Seal Population Dynamics in Erebus Bay, Antarctica .

Also check out our previous coverage  in The Antarctic Sun.