Question: While you were living on the sub-Antarctic what were you studying?

Iain Staniland answered on 2 Nov 2018:

I have visited the Sub-Antarctic with my job many times, I even lived there for 2.5 years uninterrupted. The main thing I study when there are the Antarctic fur seals. These seals were hunted to near extinction as their fur was made into hats and coats. Fortunately the population has recovered over the last hundred years and they now number in their millions.
I use small electronic logging devices that record the seals’ behaviour when they are out at sea feeding. But I also help out with many other projects. I have worked with several species of penguin and flying birds such as the world’s largest seabird the wandering albatross. All the work we do surrounds the Antarctic ecosystem, that is we are trying to understand how the Southern Ocean works from ocean currents through plankton up to the great whales.
Although Antarctica seems remote what goes on there effects and is affected the rest of the world. For example many of the animals that breed or feed in the Antarctic migrate to more northerly areas, e.g. many whales swim back and forth from the tropics and Arctic terns fly between the Arctic and Antarctic each year. Importantly the Antarctic Peninsula has been one of the most rapidly warming areas on the planet over the last few decades and we are already detecting how this affects the wildlife.