Marine Mammals, features and articles | Educational Science

Sep 27, 2018

Why a Seal Smacked Kayaker in the Face with an Octopus

See more Talk about a slap in the face. A new video captures the moment that a seal or sea lion flung a dead octopus into the face of a kayaker in New Zealand. The video was posted on Instagram by 22-year-old filmmaker Taiyo Masuda. It shows his friend and...

Nov 14, 2018

Invisible Stew of Plastic Pollution Found in Fur Seal Poop

The global invasion of microplastics now extends to the remotest islands in Chile, and the source could be your washing machine. Scientists have found plastic microfibers, tinier than 0.04 inches (1 millimeter) in length, in the poop of fur seals on far-flung Guafo Island. It's the first discovery of these...

Jan 11, 2019

Dozens of Seals Turn Up on Icy Streets in Canada. Here's Why.

An icy town in Newfoundland is dealing with some surprise visitors: a pod of around 40 harp seals. The seals are stuck 4 to 5 miles (6 to 8 kilometers) from the ocean, according to local fishing guide and bar owner Brendon FitzPatrick, who shared photographs of the animals on...

Aug 1, 2019

A Seal Has Taken Up Residence in Manhattan, and Its Human Neighbors Are Thrilled

NEW YORK — Oh my god! a woman shouted. It's a seal! She was seated on a bench near me on June 8 by Muscota Marsh, at the northern end of Manhattan. The critter's head bobbed above the water as a crowd of onlookers formed. The seal floated closer and...

Feb 4, 2020

Seal caught clapping underwater … and scientists flip out

Whales serenade each other across thousands of miles, while dolphins call out other's names using signature whistles. Now, scientists have spotted gray seals using yet another form of underwater communication: surprisingly loud clapping. Researchers caught footage of a male gray seal swimming near the Farne Islands in northeast England and...

Feb 26, 2020

Eerie seal 'ballet' beneath Antarctic iceberg wins underwater photo prize

An iceberg towering above the sea surface is an impressive sight, but the view from below is positively otherworldly. A breathtaking photo captured by French photographer Greg Lecoeur in chilly ocean waters near Antarctica revealed a mesmerizing scene: a drifting quartet of crabeater seals (Lobodon carcinophagus) illuminated by blue-tinged light...

Dec 22, 2020

Seals are making 'Star Wars' noises at each other underwater, and we have no idea why

Above water, they sound like bellowing Wookies. Below the ice, they sound like chirping, chattering robots. Either way, the Weddell seals of Antarctica should have no trouble finding work in an upcoming Star Wars project. The Weddell seals' calls create an almost unbelievable, otherworldly soundscape under the ice, Paul Cziko,...

Mar 5, 2021

World's rarest seals have a secret breeding cave in Cyprus

The world's rarest seals have been caught on camera in secret breeding caves in northern Cyprus. The new breeding sites provide hope for a struggling species, but the caves are now in need of protection. Mediterranean monk seals (Monachus monachus) are the most endangered of all the pinniped species —...

Aug 16, 2023

Mystery mass death of seals on remote, uninhabited Siberian island under investigation

More than 300 northern fur seals and Steller sea lions have been found dead in a mystery mass die-off on a small, uninhabited island in Siberia. Tyuleniy Island, also known as the 'Island of the Seals,' is located in the Sea of Okhotsk and is an important breeding ground for...

Jan 22, 2024

Bird flu wipes out over 95% of southern elephant seal pups in 'catastrophic' mass death

Over 17,000 southern elephant seal pups — accounting for 95% of the pups born last year — have died from a highly virulent strain of H5N1, known as bird flu, in a mass death event on the Valdés Peninsula in Argentina. The bird flu outbreak was officially confirmed by the...

Apr 17, 2013

Sea Lion Strandings Climb, Scientists Still Stumped

Scientists still don't know why nearly 1,300 sickly sea lions have beached themselves on the shores of southern California since the beginning of the year. However, they think some weird oceanic phenomenon may be blocking off the sea lion pups' source of food, scientists reported today (April 17). The stranded...

Oct 24, 2013

Sea Lion Species Removed from Endangered Species List

The eastern Steller sea lion, which roams the West Coast between Alaska and California, has been taken off the U.S. Endangered Species List after a major population comeback over the last several years. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Fisheries Service, which manages the population, announced the decision this...

Nov 21, 2013

Sea Lions React To Sonar

It's not only whales that are affected by military sonar, but California sea lions respond to the underwater noise as well, according to a new study in the journal Marine Environmental Research. Experiments with captive sea lions show that the louder the military style sonar signals the marine mammals are...

Nov 24, 2014

Autopsies from Space: Who Killed the Sea Lions?

This article was originally published on The Conversation. The publication contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. A decade ago, we set out to unravel deep ocean crime scenes we weren’t even sure existed. The crime? Endangered Steller sea lions were rapidly disappearing in parts of...

Aug 5, 2015

No Tusks: Ancient Walrus Cousin Looked More Like a Sea Lion

About 10 million years ago, a distant cousin of the modern walrus snapped at fish as it swam near the shore of what is now modern Japan, a new study finds. The roughly 10-foot-long (3 meters) creature didn't have tusks as walruses do today, but instead sported moderate-sized upper canines,...