British Seals Get Smartphones

Now, the idea of fitting electronic devices to animals is definitely not a new thing at all, especially since technology has advanced to such an extent where we use them to locate the animals, no matter where they are in the world. This time around, we have British harbor seals that have been fitted with smartphones by scientists in an effort to stop the rather mysterious decline of the iconic animal.

A bunch of conservationists have teamed up with telecoms giant Vodafone in an attempt to figure as to whether the culprit in the decline of the British harbor seals can be attributed to pollution, climate change, lack of food or perhaps even cannibals. What used to be a common sight in Scottish and English waters, are now a whole lot more rare.

In fact, the situation is said to be so grim, that a total of up to 90% of the seal populations have disappeared from the north and east coast of Scotland. Vodafone, working alongside the Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU) at St Andrew’s University, intend to carry out a pioneering seal surveillance scheme. All of these seals will feature a “marine tag”, which is a small handset that sends vital information concerning the seal’s coming and going, in addition to data in the surrounding ocean environment. Hopefully they manage to get to the bottom of things sooner rather than later.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: smartphone, vodafone