Wearable fitness monitors and personal EKGs are popular with humans, so why not use them for seal pups?
That’s exactly what engineers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution did: they fitted heart monitors on some baby seals on Sable Island, a remote location off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada – essentially seal pup “Fitbits” – to collect information on activity, heart rate and even EKG readings.
According to Michelle Shero, a marine biologist at WHOI:
“This data tells us a lot about the animal’s health and how much energy they’re expending and also tells us about how the pups are preparing and developing their diving abilities.
“Grey seals have large amounts of oxygen-carrying proteins acting as a sort of internal scuba tank so that they can make long underwater dives. The pups go from being nursed on land, to being suddenly weaned and having to transition to making a living in the ocean. They have to be able to hold their breath for long durations and slow their heart rate on dives so that they use their oxygen stores slowly.”
Previous heart rate loggers have either been invasive or required a person to stand within range of the seal with a receiver to get the data in real-time. But as things like fitness monitors and personal EKGs become smaller and better for humans, researchers are seeing advantages for monitoring animal health as well.
Shero worked with WHOI engineer Ben Weiss to modify and outfit a monitor that is very small and has a long battery life and memory.
According to Weiss:
“What makes this an exciting innovation is that we were able to adapt an off-the-shelf component in a highly creative application.”
Shero says these initial trial monitors show promise, providing EKG readings and other data collection, including the duration between heartbeats. The team is also taking thermal videos of the pups while wearing the heart rate monitors, to continue to expand new methods for more hand-off monitoring of in-situ animal health.
Weiss added:
“This project represents the kind of advancements in marine science that come out of collaborations between scientists and engineers.”
