Tagging of Pacific Predators

Tagging of Pacific Predators (TOPP) began in 2000 as one of many projects formed by Census of Marine Life,[1][2] an organization whose goal is to help understand and explain the diversity and abundances of the ocean in the past, present, and future.

[2] After they were formed, TOPP began by building a coalition of researchers from all over the world to find and study predators of the Pacific Ocean.

[4] These animals include elephant seals, great white sharks, leatherback turtles, squid, albatrosses, and more.

We learn through their everyday actions, and through these data, researchers have been able to determine better ways of protecting endangered species, such as the leatherback turtle.

[1] Researchers surgically implant them into the bellies of tuna, where the tags record, as often as every few seconds, pressure (for depth of dives), ambient light (to estimate location), internal and external body temperature, and, in some cases, speed of travel.

So, they are useful for fish likely to be caught as seafood, such as bluefin or yellowfin tuna,[13] or animals that return to rookeries or nesting beaches, such as boobies and leatherback turtles.

They then float to the surface and send their data via an Argos satellite back to the laboratory for two weeks, which is the life of its battery.

[1] These can be outfitted with CTD tags to record the salinity, temperature and depth data oceanographers need to identify ocean currents and water.

[27] Stelephant started out as a pup in a small harem of northern elephant seals located at Año Nuevo State Reserve.

After Stelephant Colbert was weaned, he spent the next few weeks on the beach waiting to join adult seals out in the northern Pacific Ocean.

During his third to fifth years, Stelephant practiced fighting with other young males to build strength; while he did compete with the adults, he spent most of his days far away from females.

Stelephant has been involved with the University of California, Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab researchers, and was tagged last spring to track his foraging habits while swimming and diving off the Aleutian Islands in the northern Pacific Ocean.

[31][32] He is the most talked-about seal in the program in that he was featured in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, the Associated Press, and many additional media organizations.

Stelephant is now an alpha male at Año Nuevo State Reserve, and will soon return to the ocean to forage once again.

Penelope was born as a "little" 90 lb (41 kg) pup in early January 1998 at the Año Nuevo State Reserve on the California coast.

[44] Since then, she has become a 1,500 lb (680 kg) full grown female northern elephant seal with six pups of her own, and many fans who have contributed to her fame.

Penelope spent her early life as a weaner, or weaned pup, at Año Nuevo State Reserve.

During this period she learned a lot about how to become a successful predator, like being able to travel all the way out into the northern Pacific Ocean and back again without any maps, and making it to the same place every time, which can be around an 8,000 mi (13,000 km) journey.

[48] Elephant seals are incredible divers and allow scientists to learn about their unique behavior and the environment in which they live.

[24][25] Penelope herself has been involved with the University of California, Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab researchers and was tagged last year.