Article is adapted from a 2011 live talk presentation I delivered in front of the seal exhibit at the Seattle

Aquarium.

NORTHERN FUR SEALS AND SATELLITES

Learn about current research being conducted on fur seals at the Seattle Aquarium in partnership with
multiple government agencies, and how satellites and other technologies are used together to unravel a
mystery about them.

SIZE MATTERS: SEX DIMORPHISM IN FUR SEALS

There are three Northern Fur Seals living at the Seattle Aquarium. Seen together, they remind people of
the Three Bears: small, medium and large. People assume they are a family group, but they are not
related. The female seal, Woodstock, is so much smaller than the boys that people assume that
Woodstock is their baby but she is the oldest of the three! By comparing her to the other two,
visitors get a good idea of how much larger male seals are. Imagine if men were twice as tall as, and as
much as 5 times heavier than, the average woman. Thats a big difference! If you were to visit the
remote islands where these fur seals mate, you would see why, for them, size really does matter!
However, this is true only in the summer, because male fur seals are the ultimate yo-yo dieters.

THE BEACHMASTER

Being very large and heavy for mating season is a significant advantage for males. The biggest, heaviest
males, called beachmasters, have the most success in competing for territory and mating. It takes a
lot of food for them to gain that much weight, and a lot of time and effort to find it. They gain weight in
the summer, when they need it, and lose it in the winter, when they dont. This is a hormonal, seasonal
change in fur seals that happens even with captive animals. The Aquariums older male, Al, has been
cycling his weight in this way for the last 10 years. In the winter, he weighs just over 350 pounds. By
midsummer, he can weigh 700 pounds or more. Aquarium staff arent exactly sure how much more;
their scale only goes up to 650 pounds! NOAA researchers partner with the Aquarium to study Als
annual weight changes. Studies of captive animals help them learn more about the physiology of
animals in the wild. In a way, Al is a research partner as well, helping to unlock some of the secrets of
the Northern Fur Seal. The Aquariums younger male fur seal, Commander, is named for the
Commander Islands in the Bering Sea. This summer, he has crossed the 300-pound mark for the first
time in his life. That makes him an adult male, by the standards of wildlife husbandry. He is expected to
complete his first adult weight cycle later this fall. As one of very few adult fur seals in captivity, his
participation in weight cycling studies is quite valuable to NOAA and other researchers.
THE TRAVELS OF THE NORTHERN FUR SEAL

Northern fur seals are seen off the US West Coast in the winter from Washington to California. In the
summer, they migrate up to 6,000 miles over open ocean to their breeding grounds in the Bering Sea.
These are the waters between Alaska and Russia, some of the coldest and roughest seas on Earth.
Imagine dealing every day with 50-foot waves and hurricane-force winds. This is rough for people who
work on a fishing boat (or behind a camera, filming the crew of a fishing boat); but not for a fur seal. Fur
seals are built to survive in these conditions, and they can travel great distances over open water. Fur
seal pups wean after 4 months, and then spend up to 2 years at sea without ever touching land.

HOW DO WE KNOW WHERE THEY GO?

If fur seals are at sea for years at a time, then how did we come to know this about them, and how can
we learn more? Thats where the research partners come in. This research project is a collaboration
between three government agencies NASA, NOAA, and CNES, the French space agency. NASA not only
oversees the US space program; it also controls the array of research satellites that give us data about
weather conditions. These satellites are also equipped to collect other kinds of data. For this project,
NOAA researchers travel to remote islands in the Bering Sea to capture and tag individual animals during
the summer breeding season, the only time of year that fur seals haul out on land. Batteries on the tags
last for about a year; the tags transmit continuous location data to the satellite network. This project is a
true interagency as well as an international effort: NASA launches the satellites and manages their data
transmissions, while CNES designs the modules to collect the data. After a year, the group has collected
detailed data about the travels of the tagged animals. By overlaying other available data with these
migration traces, such as prevailing ocean currents, temperatures, and salinity gradients, they can
assemble a picture of where the fur seals are going each year, observe changes to migration patterns
from year to year, and begin to understand why they change.

WHY? THE MYSTERY OF THE DISAPPEARING FUR SEALS

There is a mystery surrounding fur seals and their migrations that these research partners are working
to unfold: the animals are disappearing from their primary breeding grounds. Their breeding presence
has been declining at the rate of more than 5% a year, every year, since 1998. This research project is
an effort to understand more about the animals general health, and the factors influencing their
survival. They suspect that changing ocean conditions are affecting their food supply, a hypothesis that
can be tested with the data collected by the combined agencies. Using data from this satellite tag
survey, along with oceanographic and other data, the partners hope to learn more about why fewer fur
seals are returning to their breeding grounds each year.