By: Ben Xu

Most of the world remains unseen and undiscovered. A vast majority of the ocean still has not been explored. However, researchers in Australia continue to journey across the seas, but this time in a new manner: sea lions.

Students from the South Australian Research and Development Institute have recorded footage of the ocean floor by attaching cameras on sea lions. By doing so, they were able to map previously unexplored areas as well as gain information about various seal habitats. With this information, the students can identify what habitats are important to sea lions. After utilizing GPS and dive data, they can use machine learning and oceanographic data to predict other habitats in the area. The goal is to save Australian sea lions from worse endangerment as fewer and fewer remain on the earth.

The whole process began when the group stayed at Kangaroo Island and at Eyre Peninsula from December 2022 to August 2023. There, the students found two colonies of Australian sea lions, and they chose 8 of them to be part of the project. The researchers primarily chose female sea lions that were more independent because they caused less disturbance with the rest of the colonies.

Before attaching the cameras, the sea lions were tranquilized. While the animals were still befuddled, the students glued patches of synthetic wet suit material and then attached the cameras and other devices onto the sea lion.

Once the sea lions woke from their trances, they dove into the water and brought the cameras along with them. A few days later, the sea lions returned to take care of their pups on the shore, which loops back to why the students chose female sea lions only: to ensure that the marine animal returned to shore.

Finally, the students got the footage they had been waiting for. Nathan Angelakis, a PhD at South Australian Research and Development Institute, has been preparing for this moment for years. He witnessed the fascination of sea life as he watched the recording. “You get those moments which are really exciting,” Mr. Angelakis said, such as “when the sea lion captures a really big fish or a small shark or it’s wrangling an octopus.”

Katie Dunkley, a marine behavior researcher at Cambridge University, learned about this new style of studying marine behavior. She said that the small handful of sea lions used was not “an optimal way to quantify and fully capture habitat variations and consistencies.” However, Dunkley also said, “This approach lets us see how animals and their behaviors directly interact with their habitat which is exciting.” Dunkley understands that this new project has guided humanity to the new correlation between behaviors and habitats.

By exploring the ocean with Australian sea lions, the researchers initiated a new idea: combining behaviors and habitats to discover the world in a new manner.

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/07/science/sea-lion-videos-cameras.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2024/08/07/sea-lions-australia-cameras/