Now, for the first time in the 43-year study, the public can share the experience by watching a YouTube channel, video blog, podcasts, iTunes and other multimedia outlets including National Science Foundation Websites. MSU ecologist Bob Garrott said it's the beginning of a new outreach and educational effort that he and co-principal investigator Jay Rotella plan to expand in future field seasons.
Mary Lynn Price, a video journalist who has produced video and educational materials for numerous education institutions and news organizations, received NSF funding to join Garrott and Rotella, graduate students and technicians this year as they continue working in the Ross Sea.
The Ross Sea is part of the southernmost ocean on the planet and the only marine system whose top predators -- including the Weddell seal -- still flourish. The researchers said theirs is one of the longer running animal population studies and the longest marine mammal study in the southern hemisphere. It not only focuses on changes in the Weddell seal population, but also yields broader information about the workings of the marine environment. The study incorporates information on sea ice, fish, ecosystem dynamics, climate change, and even the Antarctic toothfish, which is marketed in U.S. restaurants as Chilean sea bass.
MSU graduate students and technicians left Bozeman at the end of September to set up camp and receive training for living and working in the wintry conditions that exist during the Austral spring of Antarctica. Rotella left Bozeman on Oct. 14 and will return around Nov. 12. Garrott planned to leave Bozeman about Nov. 4 and return about Dec. 7. Everyone is generally off the ice between Dec. 10 and 15, because it's too dangerous to continue living on sea ice once it starts turning soft, Garrott said.
The researchers work and live in four small huts on the sea ice near Big Razorback Island, 18 to 20 miles from McMurdo Station, the largest NSF base in Antarctica. They're located near huts used by early Antarctic explorers Ernest Shackleton and Robert Falcon Scott.
Price said she will show the MSU students and scientists working in close quarters with these fascinating animals in temperatures that can range -- even without windchill -- from plus 10 F to minus 30 F. Concentrating on pups and adult breeding females, the researchers start the season by weighing and tagging every pup when it's about two days old. Weddell seals are wonderful to work with, Garrott said. They're relatively gentle for being a top predator in the ecosystem, but they can weigh over 1,000 pounds and have a set of teeth like a bear's.
Later in the season, the researchers visit every colony in their study. They collect genetic samples and record every tag they can find.
Price said she will begin to document the researchers conducting science under extreme conditions in 24 hours of daylight. Among other things, she will interview the students on the challenges involved in conducting research in Antarctica. In addition to Garrott, Rotella and Price, the MSU team includes Glenn Stauffer, a late-term doctoral student from Pennsylvania; Thierry Chambert, a new doctoral student from France; Shawn Farry, a "super-tech" who makes his living as a technician in exotic locations; Jessica Farrer, a returning "super-tech" who has experience working with other marine mammal species; and Jesse DeVoe, a technician who recently earned his undergraduate degree at MSU.
"It's a fantastic opportunity for students and the people you bring down as technicians," Garrott said. "The entire continent is set aside by international treaty to be preserved. Not just anybody can go down there."
Undergraduates who want to attend graduate school benefit greatly from showing that they have real-world research experience working in places such as Antarctica, Garrott added. Providing that opportunity, in fact, is one reason that he and Rotella took over the study. He added that the study allows MSU to train the next generation of ecologists and professors. (See Nov. 2 video blog post on MSU students worki