Seals Are Helping Chart the Ocean Floor [Bathymetry]

What better option to know about the ocean’s depths than plastering this contraption on a wild seal’s head? This guy and 56 of his friends are gathering information concerning the seafloor to assist scientists model the ocean’s reaction to climate change.

The 57 elephant seals, which have an electronic tag (which looks more like a small camera and an antenna) affixed to their skulls, are the first sea creatures to be used to assemble data concerning the seafloor’s topography, called bathymetry. Whales, seals, and other large sea mammals were used to track ocean temperatures and salinity levels up to now.

The tags record data every few seconds while the animals swim. This can be sent to scientists via satellite after they visit the outside. Seals hunt for food along the seafloor about 30% of the time, and after a combined 200,000 dives, researchers have an attractive good idea of the lay of the oceanland. One important discovery the seals have made is a channel of warm water cutting across the Western edge of Antarctica.

The use of seals is a much less expensive option than the tens of thousands that might rather be spent sending ships into Antarctic waters to gather this knowledge. [ Wired ]

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This post is tagged: antarctic waters, elephant seals, gathering information, ocean temperatures, salinity levels