Twenty northern elephant seals wearing brand-new GPS satellite tags are swimming toward Alaska.

On early winter mornings at Ano Nuevo State Reserve in Northern California, researchers remove satellite tags from elephant seals and glue on new tags.

Around Palmer Station, we use a small boat to search the area for crabeater seals. Along the way we stumble upon a variety of interesting wildlife.

Jason Hassrick from the Eseal Lab. I want to know how fast elephant seal whiskers grow. So what am I doing? Sending them to a lab in La Paz, Mexico.

Daniel Palacios, at NOAA in Pacific Grove. Where is Penelope, the elephant seal, going?

Jane Stevens in Santa Cruz, CA -- The first pups of the elephant seal birthing season opened their eyes to their new world of Año Nuevo State Reserve north of Santa Cruz this last week!

Jane Stevens, at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab. For about the next six weeks, a couple of thousand female elephant seals are returning from the far reaches of the North Pacific Ocean to the beaches of Año Nuevo State Reserve. There, they'll give birth to the next generation of pups.

Nicole Marie Teutschel, at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab--Last spring TOPP researchers from the Costa Lab at UC Santa Cruz deployed satellite tags on 20 adult female elephant seals. The tag from one seal who arrived at Año Nuevo State Reserve early in November was recovered, while the remaining 19 seals are making their way back to shore.

Jane Stevens at Año Nuevo State Reserve, CA. -- Elephant seal males began surfacing like gigantic biosubs in the waves along Año Nuevo State Reserve in early December. Then the females began arriving, and the first pup was born December 16. It's the big migration season of the northern elephant seal. For about the last six months, they've been living in the far reaches of the North Pacific Ocean. The males swam along the graceful curve of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, out along the edges of the giant eddies that swirl across the planet's watery face.

Nicole Teutschel at Año Nuevo State Reserve, CA -- Last Friday's big storm generated huge waves that snatched at least three tiny pups from the sides of their mothers. Flood warnings, thunder and lightning, gale force winds, and even high surf warnings were in effect all over the central coast. Año Nuevo State Reserve was no different. One guest of the park remarked on how the thunder and lightening was cracking literally overhead, the animals were agitated and the rangers deemed the park unsafe for guests and closed the park.

Nicole Teutschel at Piedras Blancas, CA -- Today we ventured down the California Coast, from Santa Cruz to Piedras Blancas searching for Myoceen, a northern elephant seal tagged by TOPP. Myoceen is an adult female northern elephant seal featured on TOPP’s Elephant Seal Homecoming Days page. Typically, northern elephant seals return to the same colony year after year to breed and molt.

Nicole Marie Teutschel at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA -- Yesterday, at Piedras Blancas it was clear that last weekend’s storm had a dramatic effect on the colony. Many seals were pushed to the tops of sand dunes, up against the fence next to the highway, off the beach into cow pastures, and even across the highway!

Nicole Teutschel at Año Nuevo State Reserve, CA -- Isabel, one of TOPP’s featured elephant seals during the Elephant Seal Homecoming Days, has landed on the beaches of Año Nuevo! She's the second seal to make it to shore....Myoceen has already landed at Piedras Blancas, near San Simeon.

Isabel is an adult female northern elephant seal tagged last spring. After nine months of foraging thoughout the North Pacific, she is back to have her pup, and then breed before heading back out to sea.

Nicole Teutschel at Long Marine Lab, Santa Cruz, CA--Isabel and Myoceen gave birth to their pups! Isabel, an 11-year-old seal, returned to Año Nuevo on January 8^th. She came onto shore at one of Año’s largest harems: Año Point Gully. Each day TOPP researchers have been hiking out to the harem to check on Isabel, most importantly to determine when she has her pup. Today, we found Isabel with her skinny, wrinkled newborn pup, who still had its umbilical cord!

Nicole Marie Teutschel at Long Marine Lab in Santa Cruz, CA--Ocean pollution is a problem for marine ecosystems. Run-off of polluted water into the ocean, trash dumping, and oil spills cause immense problems for many birds, mammals and fish. Marine debris threatens species large and small, from sea turtles to plankton, and from whales to sea birds.

Jane Stevens at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab - We're sad to say that the black-coat elephant seals that were rescued and transferred to the Marine Mammal Center died over the weekend. Mieke Eerkens from the Marine Mammal Center sent us this email: "I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings and that this story didn’t have a happy ending. We are very disappointed, but it’s not entirely surprising, since they were very, very young and it can be hard to raise them away from their mothers successfully at that young age.

Nicole Teutschel at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA - Mukurma has returned to Año Nuevo State Reserve. How do we know? Easy: her satellite track. TOPP elephant seals each have a satellite (SAT) tag attached to their heads. While there is some variation in the bells and whistles associated with different tag types, they all tell us where the seal travels throughout her journey.

Jane Stevens at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab - This weekend, former TOPP principal investigator Randy Kochevar will be the guest speaker at Camp Ocean Pines 2008 Marine Science Series. Randy developed "Mysteries of the Deep" for the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and was the first outreach coordinator for TOPP. He'll talk about TOPP's history, the 22 species of animals that our researchers have tagged, including elephant seals, white sharks, turtles, squid, and albatross.

Nicole Teutschel at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA - And four more named seals are back! Since it was at least five days since Myoceen gave birth to her pup, we drove down to Piedras Blancas last Thursday to recover her satellite tag. We found Myoceen in a large harem just north of San Simeon and home to another elephant seal colony that's now larger than the one at Año Nuevo. Myoceen is 15 years old -- that's getting up there for female elephant seals. After over a week of fasting on shore, Myoceen still weighed more than 1,150 pounds! When we tracked her down on January 10, a couple of days after she arrived on the beach, we estimated that she weighed well over 1,300 pounds.

Jane Stevens at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA - When will she hit the beach?

Nicole Teutschel, Long Marine Lab, CA--When the TOPP E-seal team was running though the waves, trying to avoid getting soaked, they almost ran right into Penelope! Penelope’s tag’s antenna was sticking up out of the surf as she came on shore. As the water level fell back, there she was!

Nicole Teutschel at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA - We saw the first pup born at Año Nuevo State Reserve yesterday. He's 7 weeks old -- a weaner! He was born early in December, and was weaned a couple weeks ago when his mother abruptly left his side and headed back into the ocean to find some food. She hadn't eaten since she came one shore -- five whole weeks.

Nicole Teutschel at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA--Clara, the 13-year-old elephant seal tagged by TOPP last May, had her tags removed today. It was no ordinary day for the E-Seal team! Clara didn’t return to Año Nuevo, instead she chose to come ashore at Piedras Blancas to have her pup. Like Año Nuevo, Piedras is an elephant seal colony south of Big Sur, and is comprised of many little harems along a few miles of beach.

Nicole Teutschel at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA--The E-Seal team started the hike from the truck to the beach at dawn this morning: We were headed out to find Penelope and recover her tags. Penelope is a ten-year-old elephant seal tagged by TOPP. Penelope is the first featured elephant seal from TOPP, and is quite popular: she has nearly 400 friends on Facebook! She's now the poster seal for Elephant Seal Homecoming Days.

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!

Nicole Teutschel, at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA - Flora had the E-Seal team members scratching our heads...here's why. Flora is a featured elephant seal for the Elephant Seals Homecoming Days, and one of the twenty female elephant seals returning with satellite tags this season.

Nicole Teutschel at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA - It was another successful day at Año, and the eleventh satellite tag recovery of the season! Yesterday we recovered tags from Coya, one of the featured elephant seals with TOPP. Coya, also known as R999, hauled out at North Point on January 18^th. Coya stayed in a harem with only a few females for a few days before she decided to move into another larger harem just north to have her pup on January 26^th.

Jane Stevens at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA - Remember Chamomile, the tiny orphaned elephant seal pup who was rescued and taken to the Marine Mammal Center on January 11? He's gaining weight, and seems to have passed through a critical stage where he was trembling a lot and looking a little weak. They put him on a heating pad to keep him warm, and made sure that he got plenty of salmon oil and milk. Tasty.

Mieke Eerkens, communications specialist at TMMC, sent this email yesterday afternoon:

Nicole Teutschel at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA--Guadalupe’s tags have been recovered...again!

Nicole Teutschel at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA -- Sometimes recovering a satellite tag is a dangerous endeavor and can take hours. That's the way it was with Annie, the ninth named seal whose tag we needed to retrieve.

Dan Costa, aboard the Yuzomegeologia, Drake Passage, Antarctica -- We recently returned to the ship after spending the last few weeks on Cape Shirreff. Given the limited e-mail capacity of the Cape Shirreff field station, I was not able to send e-mail updates or images.

Nicole Teutschel at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA -- We finally recovered Cheddar's tags...in Piedras Blancas. She's one odd seal. She spent a couple of weeks swimming within a few miles off Año Nuevo State Reserve and taunted us as we searched the beaches looking for her. Typically seals who are within 40 kilometers (24 miles) of Año Nuevo hit land the next morning. But day after day, Cheddar stayed just off shore. She never hit land!

Dan Costa, aboard the Yuzomegeologia, Drake Passage, Antarctica -- To give you a feel for where we've been working these last few weeks, the first image shows what it's like on a clear sunny day at Cape Shirreff, a remote outpost in the Shetland Islands, about 72 miles from the Antarctic mainland. the That's the overall study sight for the fur seal work we're been doing, as well as where we tagged elephant seals and leopard seals. The second is within the area shown in the first image.

Nicole Teutschel at Año Nuevo State Reserve, CA-- On Sunday, I was searching the beaches looking for ideal tagging candidates: adult females with flipper tags (that we put on when they were born), who are skinny, have big pups, and thick fur that we can glue the tags to. As the sun was setting, I was wading through the dozens of weaned pups in the Willows, some low-growing trees behind the largest harem at Año Nuevo State Reserve.

Jane Stevens at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab -- Valentine's Day isn't just for humans. During this Valentine's Day week, the love hormones of elephant seals at Año Nuevo State Reserve are raging.

The females migrated from the far reaches of the North Pacific Ocean late last year, and began hitting the beaches in late December. Most of them arrived in January. A few days after they arrived, they gave birth to their pups.

Nicole Teutschel at Año Nuevo State Reserve, CA -- The E-Seal Team is working overtime to finish deploying 22 tags on a new group of female elephant seals. So far we’ve gotten 19 tagged: only three to go!

Tagging the elephant seals is very different from recovering them. The E-Seal Team must search the beaches for flipper tagged females, which can be a challenge!

Nicole Teutschel at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA -- After we recovered 16 tags, and deployed 19 tags on a new group of seals, the E-Seal team gets a break today…well sort of. The E-Seal team will be working on prepping the last three tags that will be deployed this weekend. These last three seals will be equipped with GPS tags. GPS tags produce high quality tracks using the GPS satellite system, and provide researchers excellent quality data that can be used to study habitat choice, navigation, behavior and you name it!

Jane Stevens at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab -- With luck, this female elephant seal will head out to sea soon, and, in about three months, bring back the first video of an elephant seal eating.....squid? ratfish? shark? Researchers know that elephant seals eat these, because they've found tiny remnants of these species in their stomachs. But they don't know where they're eating, or how often, or exactly what species.

Nicole Teutschel at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA -- The E-Seal Team has a new member, Melinda Fowler. Although new to the TOPP team, she's had extensive experience with marine mammals. Melinda did her masters at Sonoma State University with Dan Crocker, who introduced the Missouri farm girl to the world of elephant seals. He showed her how their extreme behaviors and synchronized haul out schedule makes elephant seals a model system to study many physiological processes.

Nicole Teutschel at Año Nuevo State Reserve, CA -- From the first day of life, elephant seals are living in the fast lane. Penelope's pup, who was born on January 24^th, was weaned around the 23^rd of February. Most pups are weaned about 27 days they're born.

Nicole Teutschel at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA -- Their proper name is weanlings. But we call them weaners. They've finished nursing. Most have gained 150 to 300 pounds. Almost all of their moms have headed back into the ocean. And now, among the dunes, willows and nooks and crannies of the beaches, a couple of thousand weaners clump together, in twos to twenties, going through their month-long fast.

Nicole Teutschel at Año Nuevo State Reserve, CA -- Last weekend we hiked down to the North Point harems on a mission to weigh Coya's and Flora’s weaners when we ran into Melinda and Cory, two E-Seal Team members doing resights -- looking for seals with flipper tags. They were on their way out, but had some great E-Seal gossip: Melinda had spotted a huge super-weaner in the dunes!

Jane Stevens at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab - In yesterday's post, turtle researcher George Shillinger chronicled his travels with Flat Ava and Flat Joe, who came to visit the TOPP labs. Flat Ava hung out with George. Flat Joe traveled with James Ganong. They're part of the Flat Stanleys Project. James is one of TOPP's ace computer programmers. He's the genius behind the animated maps that you see on the home page and species pages.

Nicole Teutschel at Long Marine Lab, CA -- One of the best things about being a marine biologist is getting to ask questions about the oceans, and then figuring out how to get the answers. Many of the tags we deploy give us little clues, or puzzle pieces that we then get to put together in an attempt to discover the bigger picture. Professor Ken Yoda of the Graduate School of Environmental Studies at Nagoya University in Japan was scratching his head trying to figure out a way to learn more about one of the missing pieces in the elephant seal puzzle: foraging.

Melinda Fowler, UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab -- The female elephant seals we tagged this winter are returning early, and our satellite tag recoveries are starting off with a bang! Satellite tags were deployed on 23 adult female elephant seals from Año Nuevo during the breeding season, in late January and early February. Females normally forage for about 3 months before returning to land to molt—at which time we recover the tags. This year seems to be a bit of an exception, as the females are coming back in dr

Jane Stevens at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab -- Remember that cute black-coat elephant seal that was rescued on January 11? He was released earlier this month, with two other elephant seals, into his new habitat: the Pacific Ocean.

Melinda Fowler at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab - We started putting satellite tags on a new set of female elephant seals who will head to the ocean later this month for their long migration -- seven to nine months in the place they call home most of their lives -- the cold North Pacific Ocean.

Jane Stevens, in Berkeley, CA - Check out "Tagging of Pacific Predators" on KQED-TV's QUEST!

Melinda Fowler, at UCSC's Long Marine Lab -- May has been an intense month. We just deployed our 20th satellite tag this week. All our tags were deployed on adult female elephant seals.

These seals will carry their tags until they return in late December to early January to give birth to their pups. In the meantime, their tags will transmit their positions daily and their time-depth recorders will record their diving patterns.

Nicole Teutschel from UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA-- Northern elephant seals and other local pinniped species will be featured in a film on NOVA on Tuesday, November 25th at 8 pm (local listings may vary).

Nicole Teutschel at Año Nuevo State Reserve, CA--The northern elephant seal, Mirounga angustirostris, breeding season has begun! Today the TOPP E Seal Team recovered our first satellite tag of the season. The tags were recovered from Sebastian, one big adult male! Sebastian is featured online via live tracks as well as at the Elephant Seal Homecoming Days Page (coming soon!).

Nicole Teutschel at UC Santa Cruz, Long Marine Lab--Today the E Seal Team got a glimpse into where Sebastian traveled during his 5 month journey at sea. Sebastian is an adult male elephant seal, Mirounga angustirostris, satellite tagged by TOPP last summer.

Ashley Pearson at Año Nuevo State Reserve, CA-- Hey, I'm Ashley Pearson!  Nice to meet you, TOPP.org!  I'm a senior biology major at UCSC, and I'm doing a senior thesis through the Costa lab at Long Marine Lab.  As part of my thesis, I have become a member of the TOPP E Seal team!  From time to time I will blog about the my project and the animals we work with.  

Ashley Pearson at Año Nuevo State Reserve, CA-- Hey, I'm Ashley Pearson!  Nice to meet you, TOPP.org!  I'm a senior biology major at UCSC, and I'm doing a senior thesis through the Costa lab at Long Marine Lab.  As part of my thesis, I have become a member of the TOPP E Seal team!  From time to time I will blog about the my project and the animals we work with.  

Nicole Teutschel at Piedras Blancas, CA-- Sidda is one of the featured elephant seals with Elephant Seal Homecoming Days here at TOPP.org.  This week we traveled south, down California coast through Big Sur all the way to Piedras Blancas searching for Sidda the e seal.

Sidda’s tags aren’t reporting very often. For some reason, we haven’t gotten a recent location, or satellite hit, from her tag. Sidda could be almost anywhere!

 Erin Pickett at Año Nuevo State Reserve, CA--The E Seal Team found themselves hard at work on the beach on Saturday, deploying not only the first, but the second set of satellite tags of the '09 breeding season! The first two lucky female Elephant Seals (along with the next twenty) were chosen specifically for tagging.

Nicole Teutschel at Año Nuevo State Reserve, CA-- The elephant seal breeding season has reached its peak! This week is when we find the greatest number of elephant seals hauled out along beaches of Año Nuevo State Reserve in Northern California.

Nicole Teutschel at Año Nuevo State Reserve, CA-- Today we were busy at North Point, one of the north most harems at Año Nuevo State Reserve in Northern California. In addition to recovering a satellite tag, we were also resighting.

Nicole Marie Teutschel  Año Nuevo State Reserve, CA-- Sebastian the elephant seal big, tough, and instead of answering to alpha, he IS the alpha.  Sebastian is an adult male elephant seal satellite tagged by TOPP last summer. Since, he has come ashore in a  big way: Sebastian is the alpha male of his harem in Bight Beach North. Sound familiar? Bight Beach North is the Harem where Poppy had her pup.

Nicole Teutschel at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA--Penelope has once again graced Año Nuevo State Reserve with her presence! After another long foraging trip at sea, Penelope has returned to give birth to her 7th pup. Last winter Penelope was returning to shore wearing satellite, time depth recorder, and vhf tags. Penelope's tags were recovered shortly after she had her pup.

Nicole Teutschel at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA--Penelope has once again graced Año Nuevo State Reserve with her presence! After another long foraging trip at sea, Penelope has returned to give birth to her 7th pup. Last winter Penelope was returning to shore wearing satellite, time depth recorder, and vhf tags. Penelope's tags were recovered shortly after she had her pup.

Nicole Marie Teutschel at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA--Stelephant Colbert was featured in a segment on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report. Stelephant Colbert is an adult male elephant seal named after Stephen Colbert, of the Report. Last night Stephen Colbert acknowledged Stelephant, and then proceeded to declare his hideousness.

Stelephant has yet to comment on last night's attack on his impressive proboscis (or large nose).

Hey! I'm famous! Check me out online.

Molly McCormley at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA--This week in our Day in the Life blog…adult females!  Elephant seals in general are pretty incredible! The females are no exception!  E Seal mamas are independent women that really do it all! Females fast for over a month, all while suckling and taking care of a pup.  That's dedication!   It's hard work being a mom, and when weighing in at nearly a 1 ton, they are big mammas!!

Erin Pickett at Año Nuevo State Reserve, CA-- The E Seal team at Ano isn't so sure about Jon's future as an alpha, or a beta for that matter. Come to think of it, if the hierarchy of male elephant seals were classified to go lower, Jon would be lower than that.  Recently, he hasn't even been spotted sleeping with other losers. Instead he rests completely alone amidst sand, driftwood, and the occasional smudge of seagull poop. It's almost as if he was called hideous on national TV. Oh wait! That was Stelephant...

Erin Pickett at Año Nuevo State Reserve, CA-- The E Seal team at Ano isn't so sure about Jon's future as an alpha, or a beta for that matter. Come to think of it, if the hierarchy of male elephant seals were classified to go lower, Jon would be lower than that.  Recently, he hasn't even been spotted sleeping with other losers. Instead he rests completely alone amidst sand, driftwood, and the occasional smudge of seagull poop. It's almost as if he was called hideous on national TV. Oh wait! That was Stelephant...

Nicole Teutschel at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA-- There's news from the beach! The oldest E Seal to give birth at Año Nuevo State Reserve is is 23 year old G959. G959 was flipper tagged as an adult in 1990. Tagged as an adult means that she was at least 4 years old at the time of tagging. Counting back, G959 is at least 23 years old!

Nicole Teutschel at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA-- There's news from the beach! The oldest E Seal to give birth at Año Nuevo State Reserve is is 23 year old G959. G959 was flipper tagged as an adult in 1990. Tagged as an adult means that she was at least 4 years old at the time of tagging. Counting back, G959 is at least 23 years old!

Nicole Teutschel at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA-- Looking around the harems at Año Nuevo this time of year you see fighting males, females leaving the beach, and pups constantly being weaned. However, few weaners are hanging around the harems...where do the rest of the weaners go?

Weaners are what we call E Seal pups after they've been weaned. Pups are born and nursed for only 27 days before their mother simply takes off, often while the pups are fast asleep. Thus leaving the weaners to fend for themselves on the beach.

Nicole Teutschel at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA-- Looking around the harems at Año Nuevo this time of year you see fighting males, females leaving the beach, and pups constantly being weaned. However, few weaners are hanging around the harems...where do the rest of the weaners go?

Weaners are what we call E Seal pups after they've been weaned. Pups are born and nursed for only 27 days before their mother simply takes off, often while the pups are fast asleep. Thus leaving the weaners to fend for themselves on the beach.

Molly McCormley at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA—Undergraduate interns can be some of the most fascinating biological creatures to ever encounter.  While they tend not to be very shy, their lives are so complicated, that it’s hard to keep up with one long enough to really understand what is going on in their mind! Fortunately for us, we were able to corner one long enough to get an up close and personal look into their lives.

 Ashley Pearson at Año Nuevo State Reserve, CA-- If you went to Año Nuevo every day for a week, do you think you could start to tell individual seals from one another?  Although we can tell some seals apart using physical attributes, genetically speaking, northern elephant seals are all almost identical!  Northern e seals are so similar genetically, that it is hard to identify who fathered a pup – even with a  paternity test!

Molly McCormley at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA—Alpha males are the KINGS of the elephant seals!  They have not only survived, but have become the most successful males of their species.  Considering that only 1 in 10 males will ever become alpha, these guys are rockstars!

Molly McCormley at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA--As the females nurse their pups, they slowly become skinner and skinner until they look like a completely different seal! Females loose about 35 percent of their body weight during the breeding season! These are the skinny females! 

Nicole Marie Teutschel at Año Nuevo State Reserve, CA-- Last winter 5 female weanling elephant seals were satellite tagged at Año Nuevo State Reserve in Northern California. Elephant seal weanlings are only 27 days old at weaning, and fast for 1-2 months before leaving the warm sand at Año Nuevo for the cold, harsh North Pacific Ocean.

Nicole Marie Teutschel at Long Marine Lab, Santa Cruz, CA--As adult northern elephant seals are at sea, juveniles dominate the beaches at Año Nuevo. Most TOPP E Seal research focuses on adult animals, this fall there was we partnered with Sean Hayes at NOAA to test some new tagging technology with a biologging study with juvenile E Seals.

“Hey Mike.

Despite their epic battles in the surf zones of rookery beaches, male elephant seals are less interesting than females; at least from the standpoint of how they use the