The circumpolar distributed Antarctic Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddellii) is considered sensitive to climate change, due to its disappearing fast ice breeding habitat, and assumed to have little panmixia due to a high degree of natal site fidelity. The advancement of molecular techniques has greatly assisted the understanding of population structure within this still cryptic species, and is beginning to reveal a significant relationship between the retreating ice edge extent and decreasing seal population size. However, there is still a need to investigate population trends at a continent-wide scale, to fully understand the climatic changes occurring in relation to the charismatic megafauna.