Back in late March and early April, we put out 5 tags on weaned elephant seal pups.  We chose weaners whose mothers had carried TOPP satellite tags.  Our hope was to see if their first trip to sea looked anything like moms.  Four of the 5 weaners headed north up the coast.  The other one went southwest.  The tags we put on had a limited life--only 3 months, so we knew we weren't going to get their whole trip before the tag gave out.  Several of the tags lasted longer than we expected--one is still transmitting.  The weaner that is wearing the remaining transmitting tag is in the

We put out the first 2 tags on molted adult male elephant seals at Ano Nuevo today.  These large males have been molting (growing new skin and fur) for the last month.  Male eseals come to land for two reasons, to grow new fur and to breed.  So, now that they have accomplished #1, they are off with their new coat of fur to start their foraging trip before the big show--the breeding season.  When they leave they will most likely head to the Aleutians (we will see where they actually go) to build up their body reserves to try to be the biggest, baddest male on the beach and thus to win th

Melinda Fowler, at UCSC's Long Marine Lab -- May has been an intense month. We just deployed our 20th satellite tag this week. All our tags were deployed on adult female elephant seals.

These seals will carry their tags until they return in late December to early January to give birth to their pups. In the meantime, their tags will transmit their positions daily and their time-depth recorders will record their diving patterns.

Melinda Fowler at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab - We started putting satellite tags on a new set of female elephant seals who will head to the ocean later this month for their long migration -- seven to nine months in the place they call home most of their lives -- the cold North Pacific Ocean.

Melinda Fowler, UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab -- The female elephant seals we tagged this winter are returning early, and our satellite tag recoveries are starting off with a bang! Satellite tags were deployed on 23 adult female elephant seals from Año Nuevo during the breeding season, in late January and early February. Females normally forage for about 3 months before returning to land to molt—at which time we recover the tags. This year seems to be a bit of an exception, as the females are coming back in dr