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.

We deployed our first tag yesterday morning. The seals have been returning to Año Nuevo State Reserve to grow new hair and skin. They left Año Nuevo in February -- after they finished nursing their pups and breeding with the males -- to gain back some of the hundreds of pounds that they lost while nursing. The seals don't eat for six weeks, and they're pretty skinny and hungry.

Now, they've plumped out a bit, and have enough fat reserves to molt. After they have their shiny new silver hair, we can glue on new tags that they will wear until next December, when they will return to give birth to their pups and breed again.

Here's a female elephant seal with beautiful new silver fur. When she returns next winter, that pristine coat will be all scarred up from bites of sharks and other animals. (Jerome Fiechter photo)

Today was an interesting day, for two reasons: Not only did we put a satellite tag on a female with an interesting history, we also recovered satellite tags from a seal -- female 1261 -- whose tag had not been transmitting properly. We didn't even know she was close to land. We saw her arrive in the same area in which we were putting a tag on a new seal, so we recaptured her and recovered her tags.

The female we put a satellite tag on had a slight scar near her armpit. When we looked up her history, it turns out that in 2004 she had a packing strap (a piece of trash that often entangles wildlife) stuck around her midsection. She was captured and researchers removed the strap. They attached green identifying flipper. They estimated her age at about 3 years, so that makes her a healthy 7-year-old female today.

If they hadn't removed the strap, she could have died. Seals grow so much every year, that the strap would've sliced into her and probably become infected. It's pretty bad how many marine mammals become entangled in plastic straps, line or ropes. It doesn't happen as often with elephant seals as it does with sea lions. I've seen lots of sea lions with ropes around their necks.