The dead male elephant seal which washed up on Long Beach at the weekend will be buried today.
Department of Conservation marine ranger Jim Fyfe said, after discussions between runanga, Otago Museum and University of Otago representatives, it had been decided to bury the decomposing seal.
A digger would be brought in today to bury it, and the museum would recover the skeleton at a later date.
The cause of death was not yet known, but two of the about five others that had washed up on Otago shores had been killed by boat strike.
Once the seal was turned over, they might get more clues about why it died, Mr Fyfe said.
