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The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported that elephant seals fitted with small oceanographic sensors are playing an important role in collecting data in the Southern Ocean.

Currents, sea ice and the carbon cycle in the Antarctic Ocean have a large influence on global climate change. However, since conventional oceanographic sampling from ships, satellites and drifting buoys cannot provide sea water data under thick ice in winter, oceanographic and climate models in the high-latitude oceans were not fully established.

Then came elephant seals. They travel 35 to 65 km a day, and can dive to a depth of more than 500 m on average, and to a maximum depth of 2,000m. They collected 16,500 profiles from 2004 to 2005, which contributed to a 30-fold increase over conventional data. University of Tasmania Professor Mark Hindell says “the seals are helping us to establish the global ocean observing system.”

This research was carried out by scientists from Australia,including Antarctic Climate and Ecosystem Cooperative Research Centre, France, US, and UK.

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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080812135658.htm