Elephant Seals :D +trip to Ana Nuevo

There are two species of elephant seals, the northern and southern. Northern elephant seals can be found in California and Baja California, though they prefer to frequent offshore islands rather than the North American mainland.
Southern elephant seals live in sub-Antarctic and Antarctic waters that feature brutally cold conditions but are rich in the fish, squid, and other marine foods these seals enjoy. Southern elephant seals breed on land but spend their winters in the frigid Antarctic waters near the Antarctic pack ice.
Southern elephants are the largest of all seals. Males can be over 20 feet (6 meters) long and weigh up to 8,800 pounds (4,000 kilograms). But these massive pinnipeds aren't called elephant seals because of their size. They take their name from their trunklike inflatable snouts.
When breeding season arrives, male elephant seals define and defend territories. They collect a harem of 40 to 50 females, which are much smaller than their enormous mates. Males battle each other for mating dominance. Some encounters end with roaring and aggressive posturing, but many others turn into violent and bloody battles.
Sea elephants, as these seals are sometimes called, give birth in late winter to a single pup and nurse it for approximately a month. While nursing their young, females do not eat—both mother and child live off the energy stored in reserves of her blubber. Females give birth to a single pup each year after an 11-month pregnancy.
Elephant seals were aggressively hunted for their oil, and their numbers were once reduced to the brink of extinction. Fortunately, populations have rebounded under legal protections (yay!).

That is my smarty pants awnser but since I had personal exsperience with the northern elephant seal I think i'll right about that. In febuary of my 8th grade year my family and I went to Ana Nuevo to see the elephant seals; they have a breeding ground right on the beach. Now when you hear their up to 20 ft long its hard to imagine being a few hundresd meters away from and animal that can waddle faster than you can run and kill you but those fears dident really cross my mind untill after I left. I dont think I can accuratley describe the awe I felt looking at these massive creatures but I can tell you that was the day all my uncretainties of whether I wanted to be a marine biologist flitted away and I knew that I had to have somthing to do with the ocean for the rest of my life. If i can find the pictures I took with the seals in the backround i'll post them but they might have been lost when my computer crashed :( (should have backed em up with mozy!) oh well.