One of the things that TOPP does is develop biologging techniques and technology -- putting satellite tags on animals who roam the ocean and send back data. As part of this effort, we want to apply what we've learned in the California current to other animals and ecosystems.

So, we're working with colleagues from Deakin University in Australia and the South African Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism to deploy stomach-temperature loggers. These devices measure a drop in temperature when the animals eat a fish. When warm-blooded seals eat a fish that's the same temperature as cold seawater, their stomach temperature drops. UC Santa Cruz graduate student Carey Kuhn validated this technique on elephant seals and California sea lions.

We're now applying this technology to Cape fur seals. We'll also deploy a new type of GPS tag on each animal. These tags take a snapshot of the GPS satellites in less than a second and then do a little bit of processing. Standard GPS receivers require many seconds to get the GPS satellite locations and then use a lot of power to process the locations. With the new tags, the satellite locations and processing is carried out after we recover the data, so it saves time and battery power. (Luckily, our tags are fancier than our field station, below!)

We plan on deploying 6 GPS and stomach temperature loggers. We will also deploy heart-rate loggers on another group of fur seals to see how hard they work while swimming and diving. These tags are essentially the same heart-rate recorders you can buy for use in the gym or on a bicycle, except these are in potted in epoxy to make them waterproof.