New Zealand sea lion
| New Zealand Sea Lion | |
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| New Zealand (Hooker's) Sea Lion | |
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| Genus: | Phocarctos Peters, 1866
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| Species: | P. hookeri
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| Binomial name | |
| Phocarctos hookeri (Gray, 1844)
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The New Zealand Sea Lion (Phocarctos hookeri) also known as Hooker's Sea Lion or Whakahao in Māori is a species of sea lion that breeds around the coast of New Zealand's South Island and Stewart Island/Rakiura to some extent, and to a greater extent around New Zealand's sub-antarctic islands, especially the Auckland Islands.
Conservation
As one of the larger New Zealand animals, it has been a protected species since the 1890s.
It has been inferred from middens that the Hooker's sea lion was made locally extinct in the Chatham Islands due to predation by the Moriori.[1] There was thought to be a population of around 15,000 in the mid-1990s. This may have declined somewhat since an outbreak of disease in 1998 caused the deaths of an estimated 20% of adult females and 50% of pups that year. Estimates (based on pup-counts) are about 13,000 for 2004.
A judgment of the Court of Appeal of New Zealand issued on 7 April 2004, with the reasons issued separately on 13 July 2004 (CA39/04), overturned a restrictive decision by the Minister of Fisheries, which had been based on advice from the New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries; the Court allowed squid fishers a bycatch of up to 124 sea lions in the 2004 season, as against the 62 specified by the Minister. As the species is considered to be far from endangered, the Court considered that the Minister's imposition of the lower figure (one of the lowest ever imposed in the 20-year history of such restrictions) was going beyond what the law required.
In January 2009 the Fisheries Minister gave an allowed kill of 113 sea lions by the squid fishery, an increase in 40$ over the previous season. This was condemned by the Forest and Bird conservation organisation since the Sea Lion population is under threat.[2]
Images
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| New Zealand Sea Lions on an Enderby Island beach. | New Zealand Sea Lions are surprisingly good climbers. This pup has been left by its mother adjacent to a hut on Auckland Is (an altitude of approximately 200 metres). | A New Zealand Sea Lion nursing at Enderby Island, New Zealand. |
References
- ^ McFadgen, B.G. (March 1994). "Archaeology and holocene sand dune stratigraphy on Chatham Island". 24 (1). Royal Society of New Zealand. Retrieved 2008-08-25.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ "Forest & Bird condemns 40% rise in sea lion quota". Forest & Bird. 2008-12-19. Retrieved 2009-01-27.
 | This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. |
- Template:IUCN2006 Listed as Vulnerable (VU D2 v2.3)
- Randall R. Reeves; Brent S. Stewart; Phillip J. Clapham; James A. Powell (2002). National Audubon Society Guide to Marine Mammals of the World. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. ISBN 0-375-41141-0.
External links
- Encyclopedia of New Zealand - New Zealand sea lion
- ARKive - images and movies of the Hooker's sea lion (Phocarctos hookeri)