Data from GPS loggers and Time Depth Recorders with VHF transmitters attached to female Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) at Hutton Cliffs throughout the winter months

Links between the foraging performance of Weddell seals breeding in McMurdo Sound and a range of oceanographic parameters, including sea surface temperature, productivity and bathymetry encountered during their winter foraging in the Ross Sea was investigated. The study was a pilot to determine if its possible to measure this information with GPS loggers and Time Depth Recorders with VHF transmitters (TDRT) attached to female Weddell seals at Hutton Cliff, Erebus Bay throughout the winter months. Devices were attached on 8 females post moult. Females were weighed and a series of morphometric measurements were taken, body condition assessed by isotope dilution and blood and whisker samples were collected. A biopsy core of blubber was also obtained. The devices were collected the following season. Only 4 GPS units and 3 TDRT's were recovered. Additional information that may be obtained was dive behaviour, diet and foraging success.