By: Valentina Cheng
Sea lions in Australia’s southern coast are exploring the deep sea carrying cameras and mapping the ocean floor. Daphne, Phoebe, Iris, and Pasithea are the sea lions that carried underwater cameras through the southern Indian Ocean.
The Australian sea lion, an endangered species with a population of roughly 12,000, inhabits the unmapped southern and western coastlines of the continent.
After receiving consent, Nathan Angelakis, a PhD student of South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI), and his colleagues glued synthetic “wet suit,” as reported in the NYT, and then attached cameras to the seal’s head and backs that tracked both their speed and location.
Two to ten days later, the seals came back onto land with their pups, and the researchers took their cameras off, leaving the seal to shed the wet suit material naturally from the seal’s skin.
Once evaluating all the footage of the seals, the scientists at SARDI combined data and footage, painting 6 unique seafloor habitats. With the maps ranging from 5 to 10 meters, most of them included “macroalgae, marine sponge, coral, and patches of bare sand,” ExtremeTech stated.
Using seals is much easier and more affordable than spending large amounts of money rather than vessel-towed cameras and remotely operated vehicles. They can also dive down to 245 meters, withstanding more pressure compared to humans or drop cameras.
The videos gave the researchers an uncommon look at the ocean floor. They used data like water temperature and plant matter counts, gathered from GPS and footage, to build a model that predicts the likely habitats in unexplored parts of the surrounding ocean.
One of the most outstanding things they captured is the mother, Daphne, teaching her pup how to hunt and survive in the ocean.