Song of the Antarctic Weddell Seal, 2 hours - MOO Antarctica

What does it sound like under the thick sea ice in the remote, frozen Southern Ocean around Antarctica?

Here we present more than TWO HOURS of the unique, mesmerizing vocalizations of Weddell Seals, as recorded in November 2017 from the McMurdo Oceanographic Observatory, an installation 70ft (21m) below the sea ice in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica (latitude 78 degrees south).

See also a selection of MOO audio at:
moo-antarctica.net/audio

The audio plays over a video spectrogram, which is a visual representation of the sound. Higher frequency (high "pitch") sounds are shown above the lower ones, and the color indicates the intensity of the sound. Time scrolls along with the spectrogram, and the sound being played coincides with the image passing the red vertical line in the middle of the image.

The audio is presented at normal speed - this is exactly what you would hear if you were under the ice yourself.

**Note: Older viewers may have trouble hearing sounds above 10 kHz, while many younger viewers should be able to hear all of the audio presented here. **

The sounds are coming from a small group of seals (10 to 30) in the vicinity of the Observatory–most probably about a half-mile (1km) away. November (austral spring) is prime mating season for this species, which have the most southerly distribution of any mammal.

Only one or two seals came within view of the Observatory's camera during this recording – Beware, their loud vocalizations will take you by surprise!

The Observatory is recording audio continuously. This is just a small sample of available data.

For more info, please visit www.moo-antarctica.net

The McMurdo Oceanographic Observatory is a project managed by Paul A. Cziko at the University of Oregon USA, supported by the US Antarctic Program and funded by the US National Science Foundation.