Drew Wharton: A Day in A Seal’s Life
Two enormous male elephant seals bellow and lunge at each other, their rubbery proboscises swinging as four collective tons of blubber collide. Just a few feet away, filmmaker Drew Wharton and his team film the battle, balancing precariously between capturing great footage and being crushed by the enraged giants.
The making of A Seal’s Life, which documents one of the Pacific Ocean’s most bizarre and remarkable mammals, was filled with such dramatic moments. During filming, Wharton and his crew got up close and personal with life and death in many guises, from a face-to-snout underwater encounter with a great white shark to the heartache of filming a lost seal pup on the beach.
When Wharton — who runs a Mac-based digital media studio in Santa Cruz, California — decided to create a documentary on Northern elephant seals, he had a bigger picture in mind. “I was looking for a subject that would add to the discussion of ocean conservation and environmental stewardship,” he says. “After learning more about these animals, it didn’t take long to decide this was the right subject.”
Dr. Sylvia Earle (narrator) and Drew Wharton in the studio. Photo by Wharton Media.
In cooperation with National Geographic Mission Programs, NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuary Program, and California State Parks — and with esteemed marine biologist Dr. Burney Le Boeuf acting as lead scientific advisor — Wharton shot and produced the self-funded project with a small crew of video and audio specialists over a period of three years.
A Seal’s Life features stunning HD footage, including memorable underwater sequences of elephant seals and other marine creatures. “This is an animal that most of us are never going to see in our lifetimes,” Wharton points out. “ I wanted to say, ‘Look, these are amazing creatures, and no one’s ever done a comprehensive film on them.’ But besides that, I really wanted to create something that can act as a catalyst for change. Hopefully that’s what we’ve done.”
Meet the Seals
Elephant seals are the largest seals in the world. Males of the Northern species — the ones Wharton filmed — can grow up to 16 feet long and 4,500 pounds, while females weigh in at a relatively dainty 1,500 pounds. Northern elephant seals spend most of their lives alone, making two annual 5,000-mile roundtrip migrations between deep-sea feeding grounds in the North Pacific and a handful of beaches in California and Baja, Mexico where they mate, molt, and give birth.
The fate of these mammals is intimately tied to human activities, both past and present. Throughout the 1800s Northern elephant seals were harvested almost to extinction for their oil-rich blubber; it’s estimated that only 20 to 100 individuals remained by 1890. Today the population has recovered to over 150,000 seals, but their lack of genetic variation makes them especially vulnerable to new diseases and other environmental threats.
Northern elephant seals are protected in sanctuaries along the Pacific coast, from Isla de Guadalupe, Mexico to Point Reyes, California, just north of San Francisco Bay. Twice a year the massive seals congregate on isolated beaches up and down the West Coast, providing a memorable sight for tourists as well as a valuable opportunity for researchers to learn more about these unusual animals.
“In Santa Cruz, we’re fortunate enough to have one of the primary elephant seal rookeries right here in our back yard, at Año Nuevo State Reserve,” says Wharton. “We also have world-renowned marine biologists at Long Marine Laboratory, which is part of UC Santa Cruz. They’re second to none in elephant seal research. So for this film, we had amazing access. We were fortunate enough to film alongside some of the researchers — we actually worked with them in the field to learn about these animals firsthand.”
Never Argue with an Alpha
Capturing elephant seals on film involved practical hazards as well as technical challenges. “We learned firsthand that you don’t want to find yourself standing between a 4,000-pound alpha male and one of his females in the harem!” Wharton remarks. “If he wants to go from point A to point B and you’re in the middle, you’d better get out of the way. And when they rear up to fight, you’re looking up at them! So there’s a lot of discipline and respect involved in interacting with them.”
Another concern during filming was maintaining an efficient, cost-effective workflow. “A typical shoot involved a three- or four-man team and two cameras,” he says. “We shot most everything with Sony HDW-F900s, with Panasonic AG-HVX200s as the B-roll cameras. Besides keeping costs down, I wanted to keep it to just a handful of guys so we’d have a minimal impact on the environment.”
Two underwater cinematographers also contributed to the project. “They helped out tremendously,” says Wharton. “Most of the topside footage was filmed at Año Nuevo and Piedras Blancas, which is near Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California. Most of the underwater footage was shot at the Channel Islands and Guadalupe Island, which lies 160 miles off the coast of Baja. We also filmed white sharks at the Farallon Islands, where there’s extremely limited underwater visibility, unlike the crystal-clear water surrounding Guadalupe. This definitely led to some very anxious moments, to say the least!”
Gallery
Dominant male elephant seals fight for mating rights. Photo by Phillip Colla.
Mother and pup bond using scent and sound. Photo by Phillip Colla.
A pup sleeping on the beach. Photo by Phillip Colla.
A male in shallow water, Guadalupe Island, Mexico. Photo by Phillip Colla.
Young seals sleep on the beach in San Simeon, CA. Photo by Phillip Colla.
A great white shark off the coast of Guadalupe Island, Mexico. Photo by Phillip Colla.
