Police get film of seal shoot

Department of Conservation staff recovered the dead seal yesterday. Picture / Otago Daily Times

A boatload of young men allegedly shooting seals off the Dunedin peninsula were caught on film by a tourist on a penguin-spotting tour.

Department of Conservation staff found one dead seal on the rocks near Taiaroa Head yesterday and are still looking for any other wounded animals.

Senior Sergeant Bruce Ross said police seized three shotguns after they intercepted a fishing boat at Careys Bay, Port Chalmers, at 5.40pm on Sunday.

Seven men, all in their 20s, were on board. Three men had admitted firing the shots and charges were likely.

"A tourist was videotaping a guided tour of the penguin colony when he heard gunshots and panned around and caught the whole incident on film," Mr Ross said.

The video shows the boat going close to rocks, and a volley of 16 shots can be heard.

The tourists - who were all overseas visitors - were deeply disturbed by the incident, Mr Ross said.

Yesterday, when contacted, the skipper of the fishing boat, who did not want to be named, said the group were on the water to fish but had paused to shoot rabbits.

He said the group was planning on rabbit hunting that evening and had taken their shotguns on the boat because they were not comfortable leaving them in their cars.

"I didn't actually see the seal getting shot; they were aiming for rabbits. They just said, 'oh no, I think we shot a seal'.

"I just feel sick by what's happened. It wasn't intentional. It was a complete accident that's been blown out of proportion."

The skipper also did not realise his group were shooting on private property.

"The whole thing is just a nightmare. We got back to shore and the police were waiting for us and it's just gone downhill since then."

His claim did not sit well with the landowner, who also did not want to be named.

"There are rabbits on the farm, but that steep 10m-high rockface isn't exactly a haven for rabbits. There are not too many rabbits digging their burrow in the rockface," she said.

Killing protected marine species is an offence under the Marine Mammals Protection Act 1978 and can carry a fine of up to $30,000.

Department of Conservation spokeswoman Nicola Vallance confirmed DoC was helping police with their investigation.

She said staff found one animal in a pool of blood and would be carrying out a post-mortem examination today. They were shocked by the incident.

"You hear rumours of this sort of thing happening from time to time, but I have never heard of anything like this in Dunedin.

"We take our reputation as New Zealand's wildlife capital very seriously - many people make their living from the seals and other wildlife - and this is completely shocking."

Though DoC had received complaints from members of the public that seals were "getting to be too numerous", in fact the population was only starting to recover after being hunted to near extinction, Ms Vallance said.

"Seals were almost hunted to extinction in the 19th century, and the numbers we have now are just a fraction of what their population was before the sealers arrived.

"Seals only started breeding on the peninsula in the late 1980s."

Target species

* There are at least 60,000 fur seals in New Zealand.

* They were hunted for centuries - by Maori and later by Europeans - to the point of near extinction.

* In 1894, they were given full protection.

* Killing protected marine species is an offence and can carry a fine of up to $30,000.

- NZPA