Elephant seal draws in crowds
AA young elephant seal is continuing to pull the crowds in the Bay of Plenty.
Over the past couple of weeks, the juvenile seal has made his way from Auckland to set up camp in Whakata¯ ne.
And his arrival has been greeted with plenty of interest from bystanders.
The Department of Conversation (DOC) has been kept busy putting up temporary fences to ensure that there is space between the seal and the public.
‘‘He’s definitely drawing the crowds in. People are flocking to the riverbank to catch a glimpse of the big elephant seal. But he’s just on holiday, he’s chilling. There is nothing wrong with him at the moment he’s just chilling out,’’ DOC Eastern Bay of Plenty manager Jade King-Hazel said.
She said it wasn’t very common for an elephant seal to be in the Eastern Bay of Plenty by itself, let alone as far inland as he was.
‘‘But he’s definitely here and letting it be known. He was out at Coastlands beach last week having a swim and a good time out there. Then he came into the Whakata¯ ne River and he’s been in quite a few public places so where a lot of people are he tends to just park on up.’’
She said there wasn’t a lot DOC could do at the moment given his size.
DOC’s main goal, at the moment, is to protect both the public and the seal which means ensuring that he has some space between him and the water.
‘‘It’s important that people don’t get too close as, while he’s pretty chilled out most of the time, he could become aggressive if people get too close due to him being territorial.’’
The seal is thought to be a couple of years old based on his snout meaning he’s still quite young and has not yet reached his fully grown size yet.
Elephant seals can live up to about 30 years.
The public has been calling the DOC hotline to inform them where the seal’s latest adventure has taken him to.
‘‘People have been worried because he can just lie around for hours hardly moving so they think he’s sick or hurt but he’s fine as far as we can tell. He also has marks on him which look like bullets but it’s from sharks most likely.
‘‘But he’s perfectly fine, he’s just chilling out.’’
Whakata¯ne local Amanda Kirk snapped the elephant seal at the Whakata¯ne yacht club – where he was playing in the water.
‘‘We were up on the bank and he was in the water, it was lucky that I had a good zoom on my camera,’’ Kirk said.
‘‘He’s just on holiday, he’s chilling . . . It’s important that people don’t get too close.’’