 Price$100 |  Duration1 hour |  DeliveryOnline |  StartsAnytime |
About this course
Explore the adaptations, ecology and movements of Antarctica's seals and whales. The course begins with how marine mammals conserve heat, dive and breed on a tight polar calendar, then examines the six Southern Ocean seal species and the baleen and toothed whales.
This comprehensive short course is part of the Antarctic Insights Course Series, an educational partnership between HX and the University of Tasmania's Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS). The series brings peer-reviewed polar science to anyone with an interest in the far south, whether you are preparing for a voyage, remembering one, or simply curious. This course stands alone, so no prior HX | UTAS study is required.
The course is organised into four parts. The final part follows these animals into the parts of their lives that are hardest to observe, using tracking technology to reveal where they travel and which pressures they face. Where a topic is covered in more depth elsewhere, such as krill and the wider food web, you will be directed to the relevant companion course.
The course takes around one hour to complete, excluding optional content. By taking this course, you are helping to fund the next generation of Antarctic researchers. A portion of your enrolment supports travel grants that enable researchers to reach departure ports, join HX expedition vessels and conduct new research, contributing to Antarctica's future as a continent for peace and science.
Course Structure
Learn how marine mammals hold in heat, dive on a single breath and raise their young in a short polar summer.
This part explores the tools that marine mammals use to survive in cold water, including blubber, fur, counter-current heat exchange and oxygen stores built for deep diving. It examines how seals and whales locate prey and how their breeding strategies are timed around food, sea ice and access to suitable habitat.
Meet the six seal species of the Southern Ocean and see how each uses ice and ocean in a different way.
This part introduces the crabeater, Weddell, Ross, leopard, southern elephant and Antarctic fur seals, comparing their distributions, diets, breeding systems and ecological roles. It also examines the legacy of commercial sealing and the pressures seal populations face today, including changing prey availability and disease.
Discover how baleen and toothed whales find and capture prey, and how they are recovering from the era of commercial whaling.
This part explores skim feeding, lunge feeding and bubble-netting in baleen whales, and echolocation in toothed whales such as the sperm whale and orca. It considers the different orca eco-types, the ecological roles whales play, and the pressures they face from krill fishing, vessel traffic, underwater noise and fishery interactions.
Follow marine mammals across the ocean and see what tracking technology reveals about their lives.
This part introduces the biologging tools used to follow seals and whales, from satellite tags to dive recorders and ocean sensors. It explores seasonal movement and long-distance whale migration, and examines how tracking data identifies important habitats and migratory corridors, informing conservation across national waters and the high seas.
What you will learn
Learn how marine mammals survive, dive and reproduce in Antarctic waters, how the major seal and whale species differ, and how tracking data identifies important habitats, migratory corridors and conservation priorities.
You can work through the four parts at your own pace, in one sitting or one part at a time. The course includes a glossary to help you understand specialist terminology, and a quiz that allows you to test your understanding. Completing the quiz with a score of 50% or higher makes you eligible for a Certificate of Completion, and you can attempt the quiz as many times as you like.
You can also combine this course with others in the Antarctic short course series to build your own bespoke Antarctic learning journey.
Interested in further study?
Expand your Antarctic knowledge with our Antarctic Insights Course Series.