Saved by the Seals?

Directed by

Jérôme Bouvier

Written by

Jérôme Bouvier

Produced by

Bonne Pioche, CNRS Images, Canal Overseas

Documentary, France, 2008, 52 min

Can seals be used as barometers for our climate?

On a beach of the lost islands of Kerguelen, sleeps a seal. She is going to supply vital new information about how our planet functions, and about global warming.

Christophe Guinet, a French scientist, is going to catch and equip her with high-tech gear to use elephant seals as natural field assistants to collect as much oceanographic data as possible… Goal of this experiment? To study their changes of location and to understand why in the past few decades, seals' population have decreased on some of the islands while not on others. But also, to help us discover the mysteries of the Austral ocean… This program is part of the SEaOS (southern elephant seals as oceanigraphis samplers) an international research program involving Australian and British scientists.

For the first time, animals are no longer the subjects of these studies, they become actual field helpers, essential intermediaries for the understanding of climatic phenomenon.

Through the Kerguelen Islands and the Antarctic continent, this scientific thriller offers to follow this fascinating scientific adventure. And to see how, with the help of a few elephant seals and a little high tech, scientists manage to push a little bit further the limits of our knowledge…

Debate with :

• Jérôme Bouvier, director
• Jean-Benoît Charassin, biologist and senior lecturer in the MNHN
• Fabien Roquet, engineer and PhD student in oceanography, MNHN