Foraging areas of southern elephant seals, Mirounga leonina, as inferred from water temperature data

Abstract

Fourteen time-depth-temperature recorders were recovered from adult southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) returning to Macquarie Island to breed or moult. The resulting temperature/depth profiles indicated that all four males spent most of their time in waters lying over the Antarctic Continental Shelf, whereas only one of the ten females spent any time there. Five of the females foraged just off the Antarctic Continental Shelf. and the other five remained near the Antarctic Polar Front.