Why study pack-ice seals?
Seals are top-level predators in the Southern Ocean ecosystem. Being large and abundant with a widespread distribution, they are important consumers of animals lower in the food chain such as krill, fish and squid.
Studies of pack-ice seals help in understanding the ecosystem and in managing the effects of human activities, such as fishing for krill and fish. As consumers of animals harvested by humans, it is important to understand the role of seals as predators, including how much food they require, to ensure that harvesting of their food supply is not detrimental to the population.
Unlike other marine mammals such as whales, seals spend time hauled out of the water onto ice. Consequently seals are more visible than most other life in the Southern Ocean, and so along with other visible species such as penguins they provide a feasible means of monitoring ecosystem structure and function over large scales.
Studying the more accessible predators can provide insights into their prey, which are much much more difficult to study.
