Many years ago I fished commercially off the east coast of the South Island. I have also been a land-based recreational sea- and fresh-water fisherman.
I have fished at virtually all accessible and some not so accessible places along the east coast of the South Island from North Otago to well south of the Catlins. One such place claimed the lives of two of my good friends and fishing mates who were killed instantly upon hitting the water below.
My observations here have occurred over a period of some 70 years, some of which time I was domiciled in the Catlins.
About 1803, many parties of Australians, English and Americans were dropped off all around New Zealand and its offshore Islands to harvest oil and seal hides. Hundreds of thousands of seals including fur seals, leopard seals, sea lions and elephant seals were killed for their pelts and oil. Of the eight types of penguins found in New Zealand, many of these also ended up in penguin digesters for their oil.
By the late 1830s, many sealers were forced to retire and took up easier pursuits such as trading potatoes as the seal and, to a lesser degree, the penguin populations were decimated. To prevent the possible extinction of the seal population, legislation was passed in 1875 making it illegal to kill any of these species.
The seal population made a gradual recovery, repopulating the offshore islands. However, the mainland population was somewhat slower to recover as commercial and recreational fishermen viewed any type of seal as a threat to their livelihood and, even though illegal, many were shot where fishing prevailed.
The South Island seal population, especially on the lower east coast, was therefore slower to recover. This assumedly led to an increase in reproduction of yellow-eyed penguins due to less predation by leopard seals and sea lions and also the availability of a larger supply of food due to these seals’ absence.
I have watched sea lions and elephant seals chase and catch yellow-eyed penguins. These animals have exceptional speed in the water, raising a substantial wake above their body chasing both penguins and sea-run trout. Their prey do not have a chance.
Not only that, but they continue to kill both species, as I have witnessed, simply for the sake of chasing and killing them as if a game.
They grasp the prey underwater and rise up with their victim in their jaws and flick their head with sufficient velocity to dismember and kill them, eating only the bitten portion of them.
It is more than obvious that seal species are opportunistic killers of penguins and other food species such as trout in fresh water.
One has to ask, with the marked increase in the fur seal population since the ’60s already reducing the yellow-eyed penguin population via sharing of the inshore food supply, the introduction and breeding encouragement by the Department of Conservation and others of the sea lion population along our eastern seaboard, which has been in the past the principal breeding grounds for yellow-eyed penguins — is it likely to force the extinction of this unique bird?
Would it not be logical to leave all of our offshore islands to the seals and to protect the habitat and welfare of this unique bird along our eastern seaboard?
To my mind, this situation is akin to the release of cane toads in Australia. In that case, as here and now, everyone failed to see the long-term result.
■Ken Steel is a lifelong fisherman.
