Nicole Teutschel at Año Nuevo State Reserve, CA - Recovering Mukurma's tags would have started like any other day in the field…had she been on the mainland! Instead Mukurma hauled out on Año Nuevo Island, which lies about ¼ mile off shore. Unlike the other tagged seals who have returned to the beach over the last few weeks, Mukurma was never seen with a pup. We don't know if she had one and lost it, or if she was ever pregnant to begin with. After waiting more than two weeks from her arrival on the island, the E-Seal team decided to head to the island and recover the tags.

Mukurma, a 14-year-old female elephant seal tagged by TOPP researchers last spring. Photo, Luis Huckstadt.

Año Nuevo Island is a natural reserve in the University of California Reserve System. Many types of wildlife live there: marine birds, harbor seals, California sea lions, elephant seals and even Stellar sea lions. There is an elephant seal harem on one of the larger beaches. We call it 17 Harem.

The island on a day that was a little less stormy.

The E-Seal team traveled to the island in a small boat called a Zodiac. It took two trips to get all the gear and crew to the island. This was a chilly trip with rain, cold winds, and a swell of up to 12 feet! After a little wave jumping and splashing around, we reached the island and set out to find Mukurma.

17 Harem on the island. This beach was home to California sea lions, harbor seals, and many elephant seals! Photo, Luis Huckstadt.

17 Harem was quite hectic yesterday. Instead of a few dominant males establishing and guarding their territories as they do in other harems, there were many males within the harem and on the periphery. There weren't males that seemed to be regarded as alphas, meaning that the males were continually challenging and fighting throughout our time there. Increased activity in the harem made our job a little more challenging, keeping us on our toes and hyper-aware of all movement around us to ensure safety of the team and our seal.

Male fight breaks out at 17 Harem. PhD students Samantha Simmons and Jason Hassrick look on, waiting for a chance to reach Mukurma. Mukurma is in the left in this photo, looking on at the fight.

Mukurma is an older seal, and apparently a wiser seal, too. She moved into the middle of a group of seals, and, from the moment we stepped on the sand, knew to keep an eye on us! She knew exactly what was going on, and that made it difficult to isolate her from the other animals in the harem. As is typical for research in the field, persistence and patience is key, and it paid off. After a slow little song and dance through the seals, the E-Seal team successfully recovered the tags, retrieved measurements and samples, and weighed her.