January 18, 2006 -  Seal on ice

Today’s report will have to be short.  That’s too bad because I have lots of things I could write about.  But it is already 1:30 am and I have to get up early for sampling tomorrow.  

You might recall that the other day I mentioned that we saw a seal on an ice floe as we were sampling Station B.  This was the station where the wind kicked up a lot.  My camera’s memory was full but George Westby got some great shots of the seal on the ice.  George is a phenomenal photographer and I thank him for letting me use his photos.   

I was driving the Zodiac while George and Maria sampled the water.  The wind was pushing the ice floes towards us and we spotted the seal on one of them. I maneuvered the Zodiac so that we would drift close to the seal.  We probably got within 25 feet of the floe with the seal, and George took his incredible pictures.  I am not positive what kind of seal it is, but it is either a Crabeater or Weddell seal.   This seal has fur, and from the rear the fur looked olive green, but from the front, as in the pictures, it looked very light –almost white.  Interestingly, the seal had some blood on its lower jaw. I suspect that this was from a fight with another seal, or from chewing on some tough critter that was its food. 

I am also including a nice photo that George took of me on the Zodiac on Monday, while we were sampling on that beautiful morning at Station E.  There was an iceberg in the distance that looked a lot like a pyramid.  The ice takes on all kinds of interesting shapes.  It’s always fascinating.

Okay, I need to go to bed.  Signing off…