Seals help unlock ocean secrets

Data logging devices attached to the heads of elephant seals are helping researchers collect otherwise inaccessible information about the climate.

The instrumentation group at St Andrews University's Sea Mammal Research Unit created the small data logging devices that can measure the physical properties of the ocean through which the seals swim.

Scientists usually collect data to characterise the ocean using satellite sensing, buoyant floats and ship expeditions, but winter sea ice renders the Southern Ocean virtually impermeable to all three.

Prof Mike Fedak from the University's Gatty Marine Laboratory said: 'The Southern Ocean is a hotspot for climate research because its circulation is critical to understanding the earth's climate and its huge ice sheet is sensitive to climate change.

'Southern elephant seals are wide-ranging predators that roam all over the Southern Ocean, even under the sea ice in the winter - a time when conventional ocean observation methods are unable to gather data.'