Soon afterward, they begin learning to swim in the shallow offshore waters or ponds formed by rainwater. They are very curious and rather awkward and somewhat afraid of the water at first. But they learn quickly, spend more and more time swimming about, and then, during the last three weeks of April, they go to sea one by one and disperse northwestward. They feed off the coast of northern Washington and Vancouver Island in British Columbia and do not appear on land again until September. Pinnipeds, like other mammals, must replace old skin and hair.
Most animals shed hairs year-around, but elephant seals do it all at once.
The molting process is so abrupt in the elephant seal that it is called a catastrophic molt. The maximum recorded depth is 5,015 feet by a male in 1991. The females eat nothing while they are giving birth, nursing, and mating, and the males go without food for up to three months at that time. They are preyed upon by killer whales and sharks. Females give birth for the first time at an average age of 3-4 and have an average life expectancy of about 20 years.