Weddell seals can and stay underwater for up to 80 minutes. They could hypothetically watch the entire original Disney movie, The Jungle Book, while underwater. Since they clearly are not watching movies, What are Weddell Seals doing when they are diving? Mostly foraging for food.
Scientists use an electronic tag, known as a time-depth recorder, to record how often and how deep the seals dive. In our study, we use small (2-inch x ½ inch) tags that we attach to the hind flipper. Attaching this tag does not impact the seal’s behaviors. See the pup with their tag below.
Mom and pup with time-depth recorder
Zoomed in time-depth recorder on pup tail
Photo Credit: Photo taken under NMFS permit #21006 and ACA permit #2018-013.
Our research team is studying this information to better understand how they are learning to swim and dive.
Dr. Heather Liwanag is very excited about this topic. While I was interviewing her she stated: “Weddell seals are unusual because they learn how to swim from their moms. Most true seals have to learn how to swim and dive entirely on their own, with no help from mom. This is the first study to measure the earliest swimming and diving attempts by Weddell seals, from the time they first get into the water at 1 or 2 weeks old.”
The pups we are working with are currently 3-weeks old. We usually work with one seal a day, sometimes two, and we have had to wait for 2 out of 7 so far to haul out of the water, to work with them. When we get to our sites usually two of us will go look for that day's pup while the other members of the team prep for the day. Sometimes we are lucky and find the pups close to the last time we saw them and other times, like yesterday almost, a 1/4 mile away. We were actually really happy we even found the pup, because of the day before she chose to spend the entire day in the water.
Personally, I think seal breath smells worse when they are in the water than when they are on land.
Did you know? Weddell seals can dive up 2300 feet (700 meters) deep. That is about 59 big yellow school buses long!
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