By: Ethan Tong

The ocean’s dark so we don’t know what happens in the depths. Angelakis and colleagues called in some helpers named Daphne, Phoebe, Iris and Pasithea, who were sea lions. The scientists attached cameras to each of these animal assistants. The cameras were waterproof so it couldn’t get ruined.

“For most of the ocean, we don’t know what the bottom looks like,” said Nathan Angelakis, a doctoral student at the South Australian Research and Development Institute (Aquatic Sciences) and the University of Adelaide.

Daphne, Phoebe, Iris, and Pasithea all got footage of a mother sea lion feeding and even showing her pup how to hunt for food.

“You get those moments which are really exciting,” Angelakis said, such as “when the sea lion captures a really big fish or a small shark or it’s wrangling an octopus.”

This shows that it is true that sea lions pass their skills to their pup. Also, the sea lions also collected videos of the ocean floor too.

Dan Costa, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz said that he also used cameras on sea lions and seals.

“The more we learn about them, the better chance we’ll have to manage them and protect them,” he said. “It’s just a really cool, interesting animal, and so it deserves a place in the world.”