November 7, 1996

Weddell Seal Mother and Pup.

The crew headed out among the Dellbridge Islands and back as far as Scott Base to do the first census of the year. I took advantage of a windy day (gusts up to 54 knots) to record from my tent. The tent shook and flapped and I thought I would be launched across the ice. However, Mike and Rob's handiwork with knots kept it fast to the ice. I curled up in my sleeping and recorded for several hours before being lulled to sleep by the sounds coming from below. I loud clap of the tent wall from a particularly strong gust woke me. The tape had stopped, the tape recorder cables were stiff with cold and my beard had partially frozen to the zipper on my sleeping bag. It was time to get up...I got on my ECW gear, pushed away the snow that had drifted up against the door, and hacked out the hydrophones from the ice holes--which had frozen over and filled with drifting snow. I then ambled over to the kitchen to thaw out and make dinner for my hosts; they had been out on snowmobiles all day long and I knew they we be hungry and tired. We all stayed up late. They downloaded their data from the census to various laptop computers and we told stories for hours. At midnight, I walked out onto the ice. It was still and the sun shone on Mt. Erebus--not a cloud in the sky. The steam from its vent curled like smoke. Suddenly, beneath my feet I could feel the sounds of the seals--through 6 feet of ice and two feet of snow! It was time to record. I cleared the ice from the holes, as I would have to do every few hours, and stayed up to 3:00am listening and recording.

To hear a few more samples of these sounds, please select from the examples below:

Weddell Seal Vocal Sample #3

Weddell Seal Vocal Sample #4