Luis Huckstadt and Stephen Tavoni at Isla de Lobos, Uruguay-- We have made some progress now with our recaptures, despite the sea lions’ attempts to make our work harder than it already is. So far we’ve recaptured instruments from 4 females, and in doing so we have had a blast figuring out ways to sneak, crawl and surprise these animals before they go into the water!

Luis Huckstadt and Stephen Tavoni at Isla de Lobos, Uruguay-- We had a very early start Wednesday, waking up at 5:00 am so that we could be at the port in Punta del Este, Uruguay by 6:00 am to catch the boat that was going to take us to Isla de Lobos.

Daniel Costa at Isla Lobos, Uruguay-- We finished deploying 10 tags on the sea lions.  It was an interesting experience working on a new species with a totally new field team, with variable experience.  Most importantly is that, with the exception of Dave Shuman the vet who came along to do the anesthesia I had not worked with any of the people before.  Having said that it was amazing how fast the field team came together even though some members spoke different languages (Spanish vs English).  

Daniel Costa at Isla Lobos, Uruguay-- We've been busy over the last few days.  We've succeeded in deploying 8 tags out of the 10 we planned on!  So we have only two more to go before we've accomplished our goal.  We should  be able to have all the tags out tonight and tomorrow morning. Given that it gets really warm here in the mid day, we get up at first light and work until mid morning when it gets too hot for us and the sea lions.

Dan Costa is in Uruguay satellite tagging South American sea lions. When he's not busy tagging, he's been sending updates and images from the field. Check out these images and upcoming blogs to learn more about tagging these giant sea lions! All photos were taken by Daniel Costa.

Nicole Teutschel at UC Santa Cruz, Long Marine Lab--Accountants have tax season, teachers... back to school, malls have the holidays: TOPP biologists are busy now...when many species are ready for tags, all at once! TOPP biologists are busy deploying satellite tags on five species....and that's just today!