Currently, no reliable estimates of the total crabeater seal population are available. The first footage showing Antarctic killer whales hunting a crabeater seal, but the seal survived. The leopard seal is known to prey on numerous other species, especially the crabeater seal. Weddell seals are the second most abundant species of Antarctic phocid, after the crabeater seal. Scientists diving in McMurdo also encounter the leopard seal, and crabeater seal. The crabeater seal spends most of its life in the same waters feeding on krill.