Telemetry tags increase the costs of swimming in northern fur seals, Callorhinus ursinus

Animal-borne instruments have become a standard tool for collecting important data from marine mammals. However, few studies have examined whether placement of these data loggers affects the behavior and energetics of individual animals, potentially leading to biasing data. We measured the effect of two types of relatively small data loggers (<1% of animals' mass and front profile) on the swimming speeds and energy expenditure of four female northern fur seals (Callorhinus ursinus) while swimming at depth. Swim speeds and rates of oxygen consumption were measured as the trained fur seals repeatedly swam an underwater circuit, with or without the tags. We found the placement of either tested tag significantly affected both the behavior and energetics of the fur seals in our study. Diving metabolic rate increased an average of 8.1%-12.3% (depending on tag type) and swim speed decreased an average of 3.0%-6.0% when wearing the tags. The combined changes in velocities and metabolic rates resulted in a 12.0%-19.0% increase in the total energy required by the fur seals to swim a set distance. The demonstrated effects of tags on behavior and energy expenditure may bias data sets from wild animals and potentially incur longer-term impacts on the studied animals.