Illustration by Tim Bower

David Holland, a professor of mathematics and ocean-atmosphere science at New York University, has been looking for a better way to measure the flow of ice from land to sea. He needs that information to predict sea level rise over the next century, and he thinks he's found a research partner who can help: the ringed seal.

In August, Holland's team will travel to Greenland to tag four seals in the Jakobshavn fjord with tiny monitoring devices that include a GPS receiver, a radio transmitter, and a thermometer. As the seals dive up and down in the water column, the monitoring devices will record temperature and salinity. When the seals come up for air, the transmitters will automatically send the results back to Holland's lab in New York City.

"Seals will go where no man will go," Holland says. Ships can't get close enough to calving icebergs to take the temperature of the currents that well up under the ice: the warmer the water, the faster the glaciers crumble.

Holland and his team are hopeful that the seals won't wander too far from home -- and the study area. If all goes as planned, the researchers may put more seals on the payroll in the near future.