Date:  19 November 2024

The baby kekeno/NZ fur seal somehow smuggled its way into a supply basket delivered to the Taranaki offshore platform and was lifted 40 metres above the water before discovery.

The fur seal gets lowered 40 metres to the sea
Image: Supplied

The facility called the DOCHOT line (0800 362 468), while some of the workers shepherded the seal into their tearoom where it was safe from hazards.

For Hohepa Katipa-Nepia in the DOC call centre, it was one of the stranger enquiries he has dealt with.

“I got to work finding a DOC ranger to give advice on how to handle the situation,” Hohepa says.

“In the meantime, a worker from the platform stayed on the line, explained what they were doing, and gave details of their plan to return to the seal to the sea.”

That plan was simply to pop the seal into a crate and lower it to sea level, allowing the young animal to swim off.

“Once we tracked down a ranger to give the plan the okay, it all went off without a hitch.”

Hohepa says it was a great result all round.

“We get quite a few calls about seals in strange places. When it’s on a road we tell people to call 111 because it’s a driver safety issue. Police are best placed to deal with those before anyone gets hurt.

“In this case it was a wildlife emergency, so they did the right thing calling DOCHOT. Together we managed to see another wee seal happily returned to the sea.”

With fur seal and sea lion numbers gradually increasing around NZ, it is increasingly likely people will encounter them in coastal areas, and even some distance inland.

It is probable the seal crawled into the supply basket while it was in port.

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