365 @ 54°30' South: June 8: Fur Seals in Garden Cove

Sunday 14 June 2015

June 8: Fur Seals in Garden Cove

Garden Cove is a lovely sheltered east facing cove immediately behind my house. In fact I am lucky enough to view it from both my office and bedroom windows (when they are not encrusted with salt!). It is also home to many of the fur seals of the Island.
We have Sub-Antarctic and Antarctic Fur Seals here, also the NZ Fur Seals are alleged to be interbreeding with the population so resultant hybridisation is making it difficult to clearly identify many individuals.
Macca hosts the only breeding population of sub-Antarctic Fur Seals in Australian waters. Prior to the arrival of seals in 1810 there was estimated to be around 200,000 fur seals on and around the Isthmus.
Otariid, or eared seals, are far more dextrous than their earless cousins the phocid seals, which include the elephant seals. Fur seals can move around rocky terrain with ease unlike the elephant selas that hump their way about using the momentum of the undulations in their large blubbery bodies! They move fast move fast and they have sharp teeth so one must always be on the lookout, and be light on your feet ready to evade their charges. The older seals are more relaxed as it is not yet breeding season, but the young seals, being less assured about what represents a threat seem to always mount a cheeky charge. I always run away which only seems to encourage them to keep charging. So cute and yet so scary!
Many of the seals are tagged from earlier research programs so whenever I sight a tag with a legible number I let the Rangers know, and they record the sighting in their database. I will post an update about our friend #711 featured in these photos once I hear back with more information about him.