Sea lions wearing cameras are helping scientists map the seabed

Scientists are equipping Australian sea lions with cameras and sensors to help map the floor of the sea bed and help conservation efforts of the marine mammals. Sensors mounted on the animals’ backs are collecting data and filming video.

The cameras are ultra-lightweight with satellite tracking devices and are obviously impervious to the harsh underwater conditions off the coast of South Australia. This area has previously been unexplored, and scientists are now able to better understand this underwater habitat.

The study, funded by the Australian government’s National Environmental Science Program and the Ecological Society of Australia, was published in Frontiers in Marine Science this week. It shows maps of the sea bed and the animals’ habitat over different areas, and also valuable insights into the sea lions’ behaviour.

The number of Australian sea lions has plummeted in recent years, falling by 60% over the past 40 years. So far, eight female sea lions have filmed around 90 hours of footage, which Prof Simon Goldsworthy describes as “the best slow TV ever.”

Up until now, mapping the sea bed has been complicated and labour-intensive, usually done from boats. It’s incredibly time-consuming and expensive. Now, with the help of the sea lions, the researchers have been able to cover 5000 square km of area.

Nathan Angelakis, a PhD student at the University of Adelaide, told The Guardian that female sea lions were specifically chosen over males, saying, “We deployed the instruments on adult females so we could recover the equipment a few days later when they returned to land to nurse their pups.”

The cameras are attached via resin and fabric and will fall off naturally when the sea lions moult. And the scientists have already witnessed never-before-seen behaviour. One sea lion took her pup out on a trip with a camera attached and showed it how to feed and the best hunting grounds.

The researchers also noticed that sea lions have different food preferences. Some prefer octopus and squid, while others opt for a more traditional cod dinner.

Scientists have attached cameras to marine animals before for research purposes. Dolphins trained by the US Navy were kitted with GoPros to learn about their hunting habits. A fish doorbell camera has also proved popular in the Netherlands.

[via the guardian]

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