TAGGING A SEAL

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30976, 4 February 1966, Page 17

TAGGING A SEAL

At Scott Base, lan Stirling. of the University of Canterbury, has started a three-year project on the Weddell seal population dynamics and behaviour. To tag the seal a bag is slipped over its head and an English field assistant, Anthony Rayment, holds the seal quiet as Mr Stirling fits a plastic marking tag to the tail flipper webbing. When the seal is tagged a length measurement is made and its sex is noted. “This Weddel seal study helps in understanding the

population dynamics of other seals that are being harvested! commercially. In the McMurdo Sound area near Scott Base, the seals gather near holes in the ice, making accurate checks easier than in open water areas,’” said Mr Stirling. “The greatest number of seals lie on the ice during the late afternoon and at these times aerial photography is being used over selected areas to aid the population counts,” he said. Mr Stirling and a United State* scientist will ahortly

assist with the killing of 50 seals for feeding to the Scott Base dogs during the winter. Many parts of the seals will be used for biological examination and blubber samples will be sent to New Zealand for testing the presence of D.D.T. in Antarctic fauna. Pemmican, a compressed meat block brought from New Zealand, is also fed to the dogs. Mr Stirling has spent two seasons in the Arctic doing similar work and graduated from the University Of British Columbia.