The 59-year-old Department of Conservation coastal Otago biodiversity ranger confirmed yesterday after 26 years at Doc he was leaving.
Mr Fyfe said he had family business to attend to in Northland and he planned to do some international travel, but he expected to return to the area and to remain involved in conservation at some level.
Still, "going cold turkey on sea lions is going to be really difficult".
"While I’m still young enough to go and do some other things, I’d like to go and do some other things," Mr Fyfe said yesterday.
"It’s been a hard decision for me to make, but having made it, I just see opportunities."
After receiving a master’s in marine science — studying kelp at the University of Otago — Mr Fyfe joined Doc in 1999.
Through restructuring his worked shifted into the biodiversity ranger position and yesterday he said about 80% of the work he did was "community relations work".
Because the start of his career came shortly after the Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act of 1998, some of his early work involved the implementation of that settlement, which he described as quite satisfying.
The "biggest disappointment" of his time at Doc was the inability to establish a marine reserve at Nugget Point, but he remained positive about the process to protect Otago’s coastline that started after that process faltered.
"I think Nugget Point is an amazing area and you just have to walk out to the lighthouse here and look down either side of the cliffs and you see the changes and the differences between the habitats north and south of that point and you sort of think this is pretty special.
"It’s not a huge area to set aside as a reserve.
"I think at the same time, it’s much more powerful and much more important to have a larger network of marine reserves and marine protection because the Nugget Point marine reserve would have just been a little postage stamp thing.
"The discussions that have gone on in respect to the bigger picture of trying to achieve a network of marine protected areas that’s going to serve us into the future is an important dialogue that’s taken place since then."
Mr Fyfe said he was a diver "from way back" and part of his motivation for getting into conservation was having the experience of going to the marine reserve off the coast of Leigh north of Auckland.
Watching the sea lion community grow along Dunedin’s coast had been a highlight of his tenure and working with the local communities had been "really special".
Doc had been a special place to work and the job was "really, the dream" in terms of his interests.
Doc Coastal Otago operations manager Gabe Davies said Mr Fyfe had made a massive and lasting contribution to conservation in Otago and New Zealand over his time at
the department.
"Jim has championed sea lions with the community and worked tirelessly so sea lions and people can safely co-exist across the region.
"The legacy of his work can be seen in how the breeding population of sea lions is well established and widely celebrated across Dunedin."
New Zealand Sea Lion Trust spokeswoman Jordana Whyte said Mr Fyfe had a genuine curiosity and passion for wildlife that was contagious.
He had a "magical" ability to educate people about sea lions and help them to connect to the large marine mammals.
Every single person at the trust looked up to him as a mentor and an advocate for the species, she said.
