Hundreds of fur seals descending on Herbertville Beach have met with a frosty reception.
Local fisherman Russell Bee said the animals swim up from the South Island to have their pups at the beach, with numbers often reaching 1000 in winter. "But now, they're getting out of hand. We've tried dealing with DoC, hoping to find a solution but it's hopeless," Mr Bee said.
"We're dealing with a great, green elephant attitude and we're getting nowhere," he said.
He said the seals had a terrible odour and had been known to attack.
"Just recently, Barry Rogers, my partner's son, was here from Gisborne and while swimming back to the beach after getting paua, he was attacked. He was in the channel and a seal bailed him up. Luckily he had a knife, or he would have been bitten and I hate to think what would have happened if it had been a child the seal was attacking," he said.
He had been on the end of their jaws himself.
"It was my fault. I was between the seal and the sea because I hadn't seen it lying under the flax. It ripped my jeans and I had big holes in my leg, but in this case it was just the seal's normal reaction because as long as they can see the sea they're okay."
With many of the seals weighing in up to 70kg and up to 2m long, they're no ordinary foe.
"The bulls are big fellows too."
A number of the seals arrive at the beach with green tags, indicating they've travelled from the Haast, on the South Island's West Coast, but many Herbertville locals would like to see them moved on, Mr Bee said.
"We've had meetings with DoC who've told us 'we love seals', so what can we do? If there were just 100 here in the winter that wouldn't be a problem, but now there are too many seals arriving for our environment to sustain. With the numbers increasing so much, they've now established a small colony at Cape Kidnappers too."
Mr Bee had fished at Herbertville since 1970 and said he and others have been concerned about the explosion in seal numbers for the past seven or eight years.
"I saw one eating a conger eel last week and I've also seen them take octopus, and local Richard Riddell has seen them eating barracuda too, so they must be affecting our fishing grounds," he said.
"I've been told each seal can eat five kilograms of fish a day - that's a lot."
However, Mr Bee said he also has concerns about the flora in the area.
"We had Felicity Maxwell on contract to DoC here a while ago doing a plant study and she identified 140 plant species, so we've got a great environment here and I don't want to see the seals destroy it."
Mr Bee said he had Duncan MacIntyre (National MP from 1960 until 1984) visit the beach before he died and he was adamant the Herbertville Beach environment was worth preserving.
"But I don't know what the answer is to controlling their numbers. Yes, culling would be an option, but I'm not game to suggest that to anyone because I'd run into such opposition it wouldn't be worth it. Even if the seals could be rehomed, that would be a solution, but DoC have said rehoming them doesn't work either."
The fur seals at Herbertville calve in June, July and August and leave the beach again in October and November.
- By Christine McKay of Hawke's Bay Today
