Adopt a real seal and follow its GPS-tracked journey. From the ice floes of Bohai Bay to the kelp forests of Hokkaido, the Bering Sea, and the Baltic — every seal tells a different story about our ocean.
"A lively and curious young seal, born on the ice floes of Liaodong Bay. Always eager to discover new foraging grounds."
Banban was born during a cold February and still remembers the first time he slipped into the freezing water. He's growing fast and loves to chase small fish near the kelp beds.
"A seasoned seal mother who returns to Bohai Bay's breeding grounds every year without fail. She knows every safe migration route by heart."
Diandian has raised three pups over her lifetime. She carries the knowledge of seven migration seasons and always guides younger seals through the Bohai Strait safely.
"A massive and calm elder bull. His movement patterns record over a decade of environmental changes in the Bohai Bay ecosystem."
Dayuan is one of the largest seals in his cohort. He has survived fishing gear entanglements and severe ice reduction events. His satellite data is invaluable to researchers.
"A powerful diver who follows the Sea of Okhotsk drift ice south each winter, then hunts the kelp forests of Shiretoko's UNESCO coastline in summer."
Shiretoko was satellite-tagged near Monbetsu, Hokkaido in February — part of a joint Japan-Russia telemetry study on Phoca largha. She consistently dives below 200 m chasing walleye pollock beneath the ice edge.
"A battle-scarred adult male whose GPS tracks mirror the retreating sea-ice edge across the Bering shelf — a living indicator of Arctic change."
Nunivak carries a SPOT satellite tag deployed by NOAA's Alaska Fisheries Science Center. His annual migration spans over 2,000 km from the Bering ice pack to summer estuaries near the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.
"One of the world's rarest seals — ~440 individuals — isolated in a Finnish freshwater lake since the last ice age. Her entire world is 4,400 km² of archipelago."
Saimaa is tracked under the WWF Finland / Metsahallitus telemetry programme. Her snowdrift birth lair was confirmed by camera trap in January. Every individual matters when a population is this small.
"A large Baltic grey seal whose published GPS tracks show extraordinary 800 km foraging excursions from his haul-out rocks near Uto island."
Okrug was tagged at Uto as part of the University of Helsinki / ICES Baltic seal monitoring programme. His deep foraging dives off the Polish coast reach 130 m — unusually deep for the shallow Baltic Sea.
Rare ocean treasures your seal collected on the journey
All of this data is uploaded to the Movebank database, where researchers worldwide can access it.
Data collection methods described in: Hussey et al., Aquatic Animal Telemetry Review, Science, 2015.