More than 5,000 kilometres of previously uncharted seabed in southern Australia has been mapped using footage captured by endangered sea lions. or signup to continue reading "They're already such a beautiful and charismatic animal, but then when you watch the video ..
. you get such an extra appreciation for the animal when you realise how hard they're out there working," PhD student Nathan Angelakis said. "They're constantly diving to the bottom to 90 metres, catching fish around the bottom and just completely exhausting themselves - and then they have to come back and nurse a pup," he said.
Mr Angelakis, a PhD student with The University of Adelaide and the South Australian Research and Development Institute, said the research was also fundamental in protecting an endangered species. Australian sea lions were historically hunted for their fur, and by over 60 per cent in four decades. Now, their biggest threat is gillnets - a near-invisible wall of netting that hangs vertically in the water.
After combing through - courtesy of their flippered employees - Mr Angelakis and other researchers identified six seabed habitats: macroalgae reef, macroalgae meadow, bare sand, sponge and sand, invertebrate reefs and invertebrate boulder. Ocean habitats are notoriously difficult and expensive to research and require certain conditions. "One of the main advantages is that [sea lions] cover large distances in short time frames," Mr Angelakis said.
"So they're a really good way of efficient.