Trying to understand the geographic nature of the very low Antarctic sea ice extent I made the following animation:
The highlight issues in the graphic are the clear lack of sea ice in the Amundsen/Ross Seas and the Southern Ocean off Dronning Maud land. (If you are not familiar with the names off the seas / locations see the map below).
The Weddell Sea is has a relatively compressed sea ice cover this year - but it's clear there is large inter-annual variability.
Off Wilkes Land the sea ice is heavier this year - and it's easy for this to get lost in the headline story around the very low extent. There are several Antarctic research stations along this coast:
The French Station Dumont d’Urville,
Two Australian Stations of Casey and Davis,
and the Russian Mirny Station.
Here is the NSDIC Antarctic sea ice extent 1 March 2017.
And finally the promised map from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) with regional seas and other features marked.