Today I stood on a beach in Portland, western Victoria, and photographed a Southern Elephant Seal lumbering up a beach. Elephant Seal Sammy’s sudden reappearance has made him a bit of a local celebrity. It appears as though he’s been coming back for a few years. It raises a lot of questions from locals though. Like, how old is he, what is he doing here, and how will he survive?
A history of Elephant Seals in Bass Strait
As recently as 1820 there were up to 17,000 elephant seals breeding on King Island, which is only a short distance from Portland ‘as the seal swims’. They were all wiped out in the first 20 years of the 19th century by visiting whalers.
Australia still has a quarter of the world’s population, most of which breed in Antarctic and the sub-Antarctic islands including Macquarie Island. Those populations halved in the 1950s but no-one really knows why. I have a suspicion that whaling, which by then had wiped out most species, completely altered the ecosystem. The interdependence of seabirds, seals, whales and fisheries (which were commercialising stocks too) are virtually unexplored. We don’t know the connections because in living and scientific memory, we have never had any to study but the signs of a comeback are there, if you know how to look.
Possibility of recovery
In recent years, up to 15 male elephant seals (like Sammy) have been recorded on islands south of Tasmania. In 2015 a calf was born on King Island, the first for 200 years, as far as we know.
Males spend a whole working year (about 250 days) at sea. They travel long distances and dive deep for food. They are very capable of spreading into new areas but establishing new breeding colonies takes a lot of time. You need a surplus ‘export’ of individuals from other colonies. There is some sign of a post-1950s recovery from some sub-Antarctic areas but it’s tentative. There is also evidence of big colony collapses in the past, with subsequent recovery. Our elephant seals may be more resilient than we think.
Benefits
Animals like Sammy are incredibly important for ocean health. Being colonial, long-lived and distant travelling, they are consummate transferers of energyEnergy and nutrients are the same thing. Plants capture energy from the Sun and store it in chemicals, via the process of photosynthesis. The excess greenery and waste that plants create, contain chemicals that animals can eat, in order to build their own bodies and reproduce. When a chemical is used this way, we call it a nutrient. As we More. Without them, the ecosystem stagnates. So, it’s a little bit exciting to know that they are around.
For now, Sammy may be 6-9 years old. He’ll be looking for a mate. Whether he finds one is down the chance. He’ll survive fine (he certainly seems like he has put on enough weight).
It would be even more exciting to see action taken to repatriate empty ecosystemsHow ecosystems function An ecosystem is a community of lifeforms that interact in such an optimal way that how ecosystems function best, is when all components (including humans and other animals) can persist and live alongside each other for the longest time possible. Ecosystems are fuelled by the energy created by plants (primary producers) that convert the Sun's heat energy More like King Island. It may be a huge undertaking but the rewards would be stronger fisheries, more stable climate … and many other benefits that we are simply too unaware of. Science cannot prove what it can’t see.
Elephant seal Sammy’s appearance may be a window into what our future could be like. Perhaps we should consider giving his kind a helping hand some time in the near future.
