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 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, 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 Hopkins Marine Station, Pacific Grove, CA -- Will giant Humboldt squid take over Northern California's fisheries? It's a question that the producers at KQED-TV's QUEST asked squid researcher Bill Gilly in a terrific segment that will air tomorrow, Tuesday, April 1.

Jane Stevens at Hopkins Marine Station, Pacific Grove, CA - In case you missed seeing this video of the baby white shark who was released from the Monterey Bay Aquarium, it's worth taking a look. He ate salmon steaks -- "restaurant quality" -- which were suspended from a pole by a thread. That diet helped him grow 13 inches in the six months he lived at the aquarium. Here's the link to the video.

Jane Stevens at Hopkins Marine Station, Pacific Grove, CA - Faster than a speeding squid, the Monterey Bay Aquarium's young white shark blasted south when he was released on Feb. 5. In just 44 days, he "made it safely past fishing grounds on the Pacific coast of California and the Baja Peninsula, rounded Cabo San Lucas and is heading toward the Mexican mainland," according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Melinda Conners, on Tern Island, Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge -- Masked and red-footed boobies on Tern Island have just started laying their eggs. They start breeding slightly later than black-footed and Laysan albatross.

George Shillinger, Hopkins Marine Station, Pacific Grove, CA -- We're keeping our eyes on the four remaining Great Turtle Race leatherbacks whose satellite tags are still transmitting: Turtleocity, Genevieve, Freedom and Billie. In case you're new to TOPP, we co-sponsored the Great Turtle Race last April, in which eleven leatherback turtles "raced" from Playa Grande, Costa Rica, to the Galapagos for 14 days.

Melinda Conners, on Tern Island, Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge - The albatross chicks are growing like weeds!  The adults are leaving the chicks unattended for days on end while they endlessly forage throughout the North Pacific Ocean to provide their rapidly growing chick with high-calorie chick-meals. 

Melinda Conners, on Tern Island, Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge -- This unique bird is the product of a union between a Laysan albatross and a black-footed albatross. Both of these species breed on Tern Island.