Cal Poly just completed the first season of a three-year elephant seal tagging study in partnership with The Marine Mammal Center at Vandenberg Space Force Base. This study is a collaboration between the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences and the College of Science and Mathematics, funded by the Department of Defense.

The project is led by assistant biology professor Heather Liwanag (Marine Science) and veterinarian Heather Harris (Animal Science) and includes several graduate and undergraduate students. The team successfully sedated and satellite tagged five healthy, robust weaned elephant seal pups and collected biological samples for ongoing disease studies. 

To learn more about the project and its impacts along the coast, click here.