Elephant seals study ocean & climate change

Elephant seals are being recruited as expert scientists for doing research work where people can't go--deep in the ocean under sea ice in Antarctica.

"As the creatures dive and hunt in one of the most inaccessible environments on Earth, they are feeding back information that is helping to shed light on the climate, using sensors that have been stuck to their coats.

The transmitters, developed by St Andrews University, are glued to the elephant seals and effortlessly measure the physical properties of the ocean, until the mammals shed their coats and lose the small devices after about a year."

Elephant seals are well suited to the task, diving as deep as 2 km and ranging widely under sea ice in areas inaccessible to people. Sounds like the work deserves a PhD for the elephant seals, if they're willing to talk about their findings at a public seminar.

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