Sleeping elephant seals fall through oceans depths

April 22, 2023 9:19 PM

Sleeping elephant seals fall through oceans depths. Researchers have found elephant seals falling asleep out at sea, tumbling hundreds of metres deep in uncontrolled spirals and sometimes laying motionless on the sea floor.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (22 comments total)

Sounds cool to do
posted by grobstein at 9:25 PM on April 22, 2023 [3 favorites]

Elephant seals sure don't need that thalassophobia setting when they play Horizon Forbidden West.
posted by Rinku at 9:31 PM on April 22, 2023 [10 favorites]

They also have PS5s just in case
posted by grobstein at 9:44 PM on April 22, 2023 [3 favorites]

I wonder if some elephant seals spiral right-handed and others left-handed.
posted by away for regrooving at 10:42 PM on April 22, 2023 [7 favorites]

Some marine animals like dolphins are capable of "unihemispheric sleep", where they keep one side of the brain awake and one eye open.

Can we please fund research to make this an option for humans because I basically spend my whole day half-asleep anyway and this sounds way more satisfying
posted by solotoro at 10:56 PM on April 22, 2023 [12 favorites]

I wonder if some elephant seals spiral right-handed and others left-handed.
Depends which side of the equator they're on.
posted by rouftop at 11:24 PM on April 22, 2023 [12 favorites]

same
posted by Gymnopedist at 11:49 PM on April 22, 2023 [2 favorites]

Wouldn’t unihemispheric sleep for humans mean that you’re also 50 percent awake? Thank you, but I prefer blissful unconsciousness for my naps, reliving me from the pressures of late stage capitalism.
posted by The River Ivel at 12:59 AM on April 23, 2023 [11 favorites]

This would make a great script for a hypnosis tape. The light fades as you go deeper, deeper, you begin to twirl as you relax your flippers...
posted by adept256 at 2:52 AM on April 23, 2023 [10 favorites]

Well, that sounds terrifying.
posted by aesop at 2:54 AM on April 23, 2023 [3 favorites]

Yeah this sounds like a combination of some of my worst fears: drowning, locked-in syndrome, the depths of the oceans....

Shit, why you gotta put this in my brain, Science Man??
posted by wenestvedt at 6:08 AM on April 23, 2023 [4 favorites]

I love this! Thank you for posting.
posted by tiny frying pan at 6:09 AM on April 23, 2023

This is extremely interesting. Thanks.
posted by SoberHighland at 7:13 AM on April 23, 2023

Absolutely horrifying.
No wonder they're so cranky.
posted by BlueHorse at 8:53 AM on April 23, 2023 [2 favorites]

I like how some of them wake up after bouncing off the sea floor and others just roll over like potatoes in a pot and keep snoozing
posted by The otter lady at 10:29 AM on April 23, 2023 [3 favorites]

O, to sleep on the ocean floor
Under a warm blanket of waves

(It would be terrifying and cold and dark in reality, I think, but it is nice to imagine and pretend that you’d have nice light and warm sand - like sunbathing, but underwater)
posted by Going To Maine at 10:35 AM on April 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

They have so much fat they can stay warm and alive in those conditions. And the fact they can hold their breath so long... It's astounding.
posted by SoberHighland at 12:29 PM on April 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

Unihemispheric sleep in humans would be used to create superworkers who are underpaid web developers for half the day and underpaid therapists the other half.
posted by rhizome at 1:35 PM on April 23, 2023 [7 favorites]

I assume that, since they are a) well adapted to cold and b) well adapted to mild pressure and c) able to hold their breath for a long time, ending up in fairly deep water where their predators don't look for them might feel pretty secure. I mean, *I* don't want to do it, but elephant seals don't like to watch Korean fantasy dramas on NetFlix, so the world can hold multitudes.
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:20 PM on April 23, 2023 [2 favorites]

I recently listened to a podcast episode that mentioned this!
posted by brundlefly at 2:29 PM on April 23, 2023

elephant seals don't like to watch Korean fantasy dramas on NetFlix

Has anyone ever shown them any, though? Come on, science!
posted by The otter lady at 3:18 PM on April 23, 2023 [3 favorites]

The biology of elephant seals is fucking amazing. Not only can they do this, but the pregnant females come to the birthing grounds in November and go to April without eating or drinking. They have their pups, nurse them for several months, and then go back to sea. It's astonishing.
posted by suelac at 9:25 AM on April 24, 2023