New York Aquarium Volunteer Dive Team

06/04/2026

Floating face up, sea otters use rocks placed on their chests as anvils and hammer shellfish onto the rocks to break them open. Under each sea otter's foreleg and extending across the chest is loose skin which can act as a pouch and in which they may carry food, such as sea urchins or clams, or favored stones.

What makes people different from other animals? Scientists used to think the ability to make and use tools was a distinguishing characteristic. That changed in the 1960s, when Jane Goodall observed…

05/28/2026

Walruses are not easy prey...

05/27/2026

Walruses are found in the north Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and are immediately recognizable by their prominent tusks, whiskers, and great bulk. Both males and females have tusks which are actually modified canine teeth that can grow up to 3 ft long. Walruses are separate members of the pinniped order with both similar and distinct features to true and eared seals. Like true seals, walruses lack external ear pinnae and swim by sculling their hind flippers from side to side with their fore flippers acting as stabilizers. Like eared seals, however, a walrus's hind flippers can be turned forward under the body and used for movement on land. Learn more about them here...

It’s smarter, more dangerous—and more musical—than you might think.

05/25/2026

Not all pinniped species are threatened or endangered but environmental degradation and other human-caused effects can make wild populations more susceptible to disease...

Leptospirosis afflicts sea lions on a semi-regular cycle, but warming waters and migrating fish could make the marine mammals more susceptible

05/22/2026

Cowabunga...

05/20/2026

Eared seals, such as fur seals and sea lions, have external ear flaps. They swim using their front flippers and can also rotate their hind flippers under the body to help them walk on land...

05/19/2026

Asleep in the deep...

Northern elephant seals sleep underwater for just two hours per day on their months-long foraging journeys.

05/17/2026

The rather rude sounds of an elephant seal. Note also that like all true seals, the huge elephant seal must "scooch" along on land as it is unable to tuck its hind flippers under its body...

Male elephant seals recognise the rhythm of one another's voices, researchers say.

05/13/2026

Monk seals are true seals. There are only two species remaining today, namely, the Mediterranean and Hawaiian monk seals and both are highly endangered with just 700 and 1,400 individuals remaining in the world respectively. Hopefully, however, conservation and recovery program efforts will be able to help them...

The Hawaiian monk seal is one of the most endangered seal species in the world. Learn more about this protected species and the science and management NOAA Fisheries is investing in its recovery.