The male elephant seal is an unsightly mess. His hair is falling out, he is covered in flies, foaming from the nose and has a poo smear running the length of his belly from dragging himself through his excrement. He probably can’t see well, is slow moving, uncoordinated, and can’t grab a hovering gull <1 foot away from his open mouth.

To be fair, we are seeing him at his worst. In the sea, this creatures is an extremely manoeuvrable master diver and hunter! He can easily hold his breath for 20 minutes and dive to 800 m (maximums of up to 100 min long and 2 km deep have been recorded). His eyes have adaptations for low light, his vibrissae (whiskers) can detect vibrations, he can reduce blood flow to his extremities, has a large blood volume with a high red cell count and can store extra blood in his abdomen and spleen to release slowly during his dive. And that white stuff oozing from his nostril?  It is a pulmonary surfactant that reduces the surface tension of the fluid in the lungs but it also acts an anti-adhesive. When he dives to great depths the pressure is so high his lungs collapse and this surfactant stops the lung tissue from sticking together allowing the lungs to later expand again.

References:

The Remarkable Non-Stick Lungs of Elephant Seals, The Common Naturalist – read more

The Northern Elephant Seal, by Veronica Pagowski, Northwest Wildlife Preservation Society – read more

Wildlife notes:

The gulls were very testy today. I got nailed with a wet, warm, smelly bomb right in the head and across my glasses, and it was first time I had raise my broom to intercept a diving gull. The first chicks should hatching any day now.

Facility work:

• cleaned solar panels
• thistles
• survey and brush the electric fence line
• vacuum and clean main basement room

Vessels:

5 Ecotourism boats, 4 private

Weather:

Sunny day, calm seas, winds light and variable 4-7 knots.

DND activity:

Three blasts heard and seen from Bentinck Island. No obvious signs of distress.