Tasmanian resumes seal research

A Tasmanian seal researcher is heading off to Alaska today for her second year of satellite tracking young northern fur seals.

Dr Mary-Anne Lea says last year's work found that the newly weaned seals sometimes travel up to 8,000 kilometres in their first few months of independence.

However, many of the 99 animals tagged died in Arctic storms or were eaten by killer whales and sea lions.

The research is being done for the United States Government.

Dr Lea says it is important because while some small populations are increasing, in the main colony on Pribilus Island off Alaska there has been a 50 per cent drop in the number of northern fur seals in the past 25 years.

"The local people that live on Pribilus have been dependent on these populations for hundreds of years now," she said.

"From a management point of view it's important to know what factors are influencing the decline that we're seeing and if there's anything that can be done about that."