Wegener Institute - Warming Seas Force Indian Ocean Elephant Seals To Dive Deeper For Squid
SUMMIT COUNTY —The deep-diving elephant seals of Marion Island, in the southwestern Indian Ocean, are going to even greater depths to find prey like squid, as global warming heats up the water. Scientists with the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research who have been tracking the pinnipeds for the past few years say that warming in the upper levels of the ocean has pushed prey to greater depths than ever before, forcing the elephant seals to follow.
“The food in the sea is unevenly distributed. It is not worth the seals fishing anywhere and at any time. With the new data we hope to see the routes taken by the elephant seals of Marion Island and the water levels in which they find food“, said researcher Horst Bornemann.
The elephant seals are very close to reaching their physiological limits even in their dive behavior today. This leads the biologists to assume that this may reduce the survival rate of the seals in the long term.
The study was a collaboration between the German institute and Universities of Pretoria and Cape Town. The southern elephant seals from Marion Island are extreme divers in the truest sense of the word. The animals spend more than 65 per cent of their lives in depths below 100 meters, diving far deeper than their fellow species in southern areas.
EDIT
http://summitcountyvoice.com/2012/02/10/global-warming-forces-elephant-seals-to-dive-deeper/
