Kangaroo Island may cull New Zealand fur seals to save penguins

• by: Heather Kennett
• From: Sunday Mail (SA)
• May 05, 2012 

Kangaroo Island Penguin Centre owner John Ayliffe with young sea lions. Picture: Sean McGowa

SEALS versus little penguins - it's an age-old battle playing out on Kangaroo Island, the jewel in South Australia's tourism crown. 

As the population of NZ fur seals slowly rebuilds to about 100,000 after being almost eradicated by commercial sealing in the 1800s, once thriving penguin colonies have been halved, victim to a faster moving, stronger, natural predator.

Pleas to the Environment Department for a seal cull or sterilisation program to protect dwindling little penguin colonies and shore up KI's important visitor drawcard have been rebuffed. In desperation, KI Penguin Centre owner John Ayliffe has called on the State Government to consider a legal harvest of aggressive male NZ fur seals, as practiced in Canada and some European countries.
"We will eventually have to manage and harvest NZ fur seals at some stage in the future," Mr Ayliffe said.

"Harvesting is a major tool used internationally to manage numbers. It's only a matter of time before we implement some control measures here in SA. Penguin numbers have halved at Kingscote so it is important that seals are managed away from colonies at Kingscote, Penneshaw and Granite Island to ensure tourism assets stay viable."

Mr Ayliffe said seals harvested in the northern hemisphere were part of a viable commercial industry and attempts should be made to develop one locally.

"In five years' time we could have 5000 to 10,000 seals hanging around in each of SA's gulfs," he said.

"Now that's just not sustainable for our fish stocks. We need a viable marine ecosystem that provides food for people while being sustainable for all species."

SA's fishing industry has come out in support of Mr Ayliffe's proposed intervention. Stehr Group executive director Marcus Stehr said NZ fur seals attacks on tuna farms and infrastructure was costing his business "at least $1 million" annually.

"Seals cost the entire industry millions of dollars every year and we do need support from the State Government to look at how we manage them," he said. "In SA we have failed to develop any strategies to manage growing seal numbers and it's vital that this begins."

An Environment Department spokeswoman said NZ fur seals were protected under the National Parks and Wildlife Act.

"The Government does not support culling, sterilisation or relocation of NZ fur seals in SA," she said. "Attempts interstate and overseas to manage seal populations through culling, sterilisation or relocation have proven resource-hungry and largely ineffectual and any benefit received from relocating a small number of seals would likely be lost due to the influx of new seals.

"The most effective way to stop seals taking farmed fish is for fish farm infrastructure to be designed to prevent seal entry."

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