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Even though they spend most of their time at sea, the southern elephant seals are observed when they come ashore for many reasons—mating, giving birth, or molting. But when they are at the Troll Research Station in Antarctica, they are doing a job that would normally cost scientists millions of dollars in research equipment as compared to the seals being equipped with instruments and going for long-distance swims, while innocently diving 1,000-feet depths looking for squid.

All of this may appear to be harmless to individuals like ourselves, it is providing valuable data for climate change and the melting of ice, all being researched in about 1% of Antarctica.  "It would take years and millions and millions of dollars for a research ship to do what they're doing…" Norwegian scientist Kim Holmen said. (msnbc.com. 2009."Elephant seals help monitor climate change.)  

All of this is going on because if the Antarctica land ice melts completely, the ocean levels worldwide would raise 187-feet over a duration of several centuries. But according to Jan Gunnar Winther, director of the Norwegian Polar Institute, because of the large size of Antarctica even the tiniest change would make a huge difference.  For example, a one-percent loss of the ice at Antarctica would cause a raise in sea level of 2 feet—with scientists strongly stating that even this small amount would be a slow-motion disaster for global coastlines.

Because the western collapses may be duplicated on the country's eastern side, computer models are showing that warming waters may weaken the 7,000-square-mile Fimbul ice shelf. An area inhabited by huge bull elephant seals where their 1,000-mile stretch of migratory oceans are, institutional teams captured 20 of the animals and glued small instrument packages to the backs of the seals. These scientific instruments will measure depth, salinity, water temperature, and locations—all through the Global Positioning System.

The instruments will provide data on ice formation, ocean currents, and climate change in many areas, but in particular the blind spots under winter sea ice that the scientists have been unable to get to. What has been found is that sea ice reflects sunlight back into space. If the amount of sea ice is less, more energy will be absorbed by earth thereby causing more warming.  According to co-author Steve Rintoul, from Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) , the elephant seals are making it possible for Antarctica scientists to observe the larger areas of ocean located under the sea ice of winter.

Saving millions of dollars, the hardest task is for the scientists to capture the elephant seals and attach the instruments—where they will be lost once the seals begin to molt. A replacement of old skin and hair, elephant seals shed their hair all at once instead of all year round like most mammals.  Called a catastrophic molt, it is an extremely abrupt molting process.