Northern fur seals have undergone large scale declines at their major breeding sites in the Pribilof Islands over the last 30 years while smaller Alaskan and Californian populations are still increasing. Juvenile mortality at sea is surmised to be the main potential influence on this declines yet little is known of the behaviour of pups once weaned. Read More....

The project aims to gain an understanding of the winter foraging pattern of Weddell seals, both at Dumont D'Urville and Davis base, utilising satellite tracking and dive behahiour data.

Supervisors:

• Dr Mark Hindell (UTas)
• Dr Jean-Benoit Charrassin ( UB-C, Museum of Natural History, Paris)

Adelie penguins have been nominated as an indicator species for the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) Ecosystem Monitoring Program (CEMP). As part of this programme their diet has been regularly assessed through the collection and analysis of stomach contents. However this method has a number of biases and limitations associated with it. Read More....

I will investigate foraging success of female southern elephant seals from Macquarie Is. in relation to inter-annual variation in sea-ice extent and physical characteristics of the ocean. This project is part of a multinational program known as MEOP (Marine Mammals Explore the Ocean Pole to Pole). Read More....

This project will focus on developing and testing conceptual models of seabird foraging. Read More....