Sea Lions Map the Australian Seafloor in New Study

Much of the ocean is still unmapped and unexplored. Most mapping surveys require vessels, and that can be costly, involve a lot of personnel, and require favorable weather conditions. Nathan Angelakis, a Ph.D. student at the University of Adelaide, sought a novel way to map the Australian continental shelf using sea lions.

Australian sea lions are benthic predators, meaning they are foraging on the seafloor to eat, making them the perfect subjects. They are also endangered so the videos can help identify critical habitats that need protecting for their survival.

Cameras were placed on 8 female sea lions and were taken off after 2-10 days. In total, the sea lions mapped ~560 km (~350 miles) of the seafloor ranging in depths from 5 to 110m (16 to 360 ft) and identified 6 benthic habitats: macroalgae reef, macroalgae meadow, bare sand, sponge/sand, invertebrate reef and invertebrate boulder habitats.

The study concludes that using animal-borne videos can help fill in the gaps for many maps and simultaneously provide insight into animal behaviors.

Angelakis et al., Using sea lion-borne video to map diverse benthic habitats in southern Australia, Frontiers in Marine Science, 2024 doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2024.1425554