Sunbathing seals avoiding sea swells unsettle penguins

The Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony got the seal of approval from some off-shore visitors yesterday.

About 45 fur seals were sunning themselves in front of the colony grandstands, and the larger-than-usual number was most likely due to the sea swell, colony science and environmental manager Philippa Agnew said.

"It’s weird, for an animal that lives its life predominantly in the water; any time it’s really rough at sea, they don’t seem to want to go fishing," Dr Agnew said.

It was normal for the seals to make themselves at home at the colony over the winter, "just sort of loitering and being a general nuisance fighting with each other over the same rock", and they tended to disappear over the breeding season, from September to the end of February/March.

"I don’t know for sure, but looking at some of the animals, it looks like they might have had quite a good breeding season over this last year, because some of the younger animals, they would have been newly weaned in the last few months, I think, and they’re looking really healthy."

While the marine mammals posed no risk to the local penguins, due to the plentiful fish supply, the little blues were still a bit wary of having to bypass the seals when coming ashore in the evenings, Dr Agnew said.

"Some nights, if there’s fur seals lying in the middle of the way, it delays them coming up, ‘cos they can get a little bit nervous."

 - Ashley Smythe