Meet Harry… A New Zealand fur seal/kekeno juvenile. He is a local of Dunedin/Ōtepoti, a fur-iendly face on the Clearwater Wildlife Tours, and Harry Styles is his namesake. While their similarities include both being showmen, photogenic, and having doe eyes; I’m not suggesting that Harry Styles is cuter than Harry the fur seal.
Fur seals are endemic to Aotearoa New Zealand. By 1500 A.D., Māori subsistence hunting had extirpated fur seals from the North Island and in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries, commercial sealing resulted in 1.5 – 2 million seal skins being taken. By the 1830’s, sealing had almost ceased, due to a lack of seals. From 1875, seal hunting permits and closed seasons were introduced and the last commercial harvest was in 1946. Fur seals, alongside New Zealand sea lions/pakake, are now fully protected under the Marine Mammals Protection Act 1978.
Fur seals have miraculously reestablished across mainland Aotearoa, and their population is approximately 200,000 in total. Unlike sea lions, who only reside on the south-east coast of Aotearoa and the Subantarctic Islands, and their population is approximately 12,000 in total. Fur seals population distribution and genetic diversity could be attributed to fur seals on shore in any given colony being targeted, and individuals at sea, such as juveniles, subadult males, nonbreeding females, and lactating females escaping the hunt; and their population reaching pre-hunting historical carrying capacity.
Photo: Sian Mair. Taken from a safe distance and zoomed in on.