California Sea Lion Movement and Haul-Out Behavior

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California Sea Lion Movement and Haul-Out Behavior

Mentor & Lab: George Colaco – Costa Lab

Positions: 1-2 interns

Tentative dates: Summer 2025; specific dates are flexible

Project Location: Coastal Science Campus with a remote option available

Project Background: California sea lions are essential predators that fill a crucial role in the California Current Ecosystem. The haul-out behavior of these ocean sentinels is closely related to their predator-avoidance strategies, foraging behavior, thermoregulatory requirements, and social interactions (among other things). Thus, understanding how various factors influence where and when pinnipeds haul-out is critical for effectively evaluating important efforts like population surveys, disease transmission studies, and ocean health monitoring.

Intern duties: Intern will analyze movement and diving data in R and/or MATLAB from a growing collection of biologging data from tags carried by California sea lions of various sex and age classes. Intern will identify foraging, transit, and haul-out periods relative to environmental and oceanographic conditions to understand drivers of haul-out behavior. Opportunities to assist drone and kayak surveys of pinniped haul-outs near Santa Cruz will occur for in-person interns but are not critical for the project.

Intern qualifications: Intern should be comfortable with basic coding in R (or MATLAB/Python), though there will be ample programming support throughout the project. Background in marine mammal biology, statistical analyses, and GIS are all added bonuses. Applicants must have experience reading research papers and be eager to learn/problem solve.

Do you recommend the intern(s) volunteer in your lab during Spring quarter? Recommended but not required.