Observations of two juvenile southern elephant seals hauling out on the Soya Coast, Lützow-Holm Bay, East Antarctica

Abstract

We report observations of two juvenile southern elephant seals (SES), Mirounga leonina, hauling out on the Soya Coast, Lützow-Holm Bay, East Antarctica, in January 2019. To our knowledge, there have been no previous reports of SES hauling out in this region despite frequent biological research activities under the Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition since the 1960s. One juvenile seal was observed resting at the shore of Lake Suribachi Ike (69° 28′ 58′′S, 39° 39′ 21′′E) in Skarvsnes, located 1.2 km inland from the closest coastline, on 26 January 2019. Another juvenile seal was observed on the seashore of Langhovde (69° 12′ 54′′S, 39° 37′ 31′′E) on 30 January 2019. Both SES showed no signs of molting. At the time of our observations, Lützow-Holm Bay was covered with fast sea ice, extending >80 km from the observation sites, suggesting that the SES penetrated the fast sea ice area using cracks and leads for breathing to reach the snow/ ice-free coastline.

Keywords

• southern elephant seal
• lützow-holm bay
• fast sea ice