Source: High North News, No.11, Nov. 1996, published by the High North Alliance

    Sea lions to track whales

    A project at the San Jose State University / Moss Landing Marine Laboratories intends to employ sea lions to help reveal the secret underwater life of whales. “The idea is that when you study whales by introducing artificial things into their environment, such as man or machine, you change their behaviour. But whales are used to seeing sea lions”, project-coordinator James Harvey is reported to have said in a UPI news release on August 5. The plan is to equip the sea lions with a film camera. The sea lions are trained to obey acoustic commands. “In reality, whales spend 90 to 95 percent of their time under the sea. We need to know what is going on down there”, says Harvey. The sea lions will also be trained to fix a tag to a swimming whale.

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