A colony of seals on the New South Wales Far South Coast has been fitted with tracking devices as researchers work to find out more about them.<\/p>\n
Barunguba, also known as Montague Island, is based off the coast of Narooma and home to hundreds of Australian and New Zealand fur seals.<\/p>\n
In a bid to learn more about their movements and the waters they live in, a group of marine scientists has glued tracking devices onto 11 New Zealand fur seals.<\/p>\n
“We’re doing this work to find out more about the animals and the environment that they inhabit,” said Isobel Lerpiniere, project manager of the NSW Ocean Outlook Program at the Sydney Institute of Marine Science.<\/p>\n
“We can track their movements and concurrently we can collect oceanographic data.”<\/p>\n
Barunguba is “synonymous with seals”, according to one expert involved in the program. (Supplied: Eurobodalla Coast Tourism)<\/p>\n
The Sydney Institute of Marine Science is leading the project with support from the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), the Sea World Foundation and Taronga Zoo Sydney.<\/p>\n
The seals were netted and tagged in May, which coincided with their annual moult.<\/p>\n
The New Zealand fur seals were selected for tagging because of their range of travel.<\/p>\n
Australian fur seals tend to stick closer to the coast.<\/p>\n
NSW NPWS marine vet Duane March, who assisted with the tagging process, said the seals were icons in the region.<\/p>\n
“The island is synonymous with fur seals,” he said.<\/p>\n
“They’re very charismatic \u2014 they’re effectively wet dogs.<\/p>\n
“It’s important to work out where these animals are living and foraging and moving so that we can protect those areas.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
More than 1,000 fur seals congregate at Barunguba during peak periods. (Supplied: David Rogers Photography)<\/p>\n
Roving dogs of the sea<\/p>\n
The tags will gather location, time and depth data and oceanographic information over six to 10 months.<\/p>\n
“We want to understand the movement patterns and the habitat use of the animals to support conservation and management as coastal ecosystems change,” Ms Lerpiniere said.<\/p>\n
“By employing seals as oceanographers, we’re simultaneously understanding how their behaviour is changing in the face of climate change so that we can better protect them into the future.”<\/p>\n
The tags are non-invasive and will naturally detach within a year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Seals are often seen sunbathing on the rocks at Barunguba. (Supplied: David Rogers Photography)<\/p>\n
Three months into the program, two have already fallen off.<\/p>\n
“The reality is they’re seals \u2014 they’re out and about doing things and they can knock them off,” Ms Lerpiniere said.<\/p>\n
“They’ve been travelling as far south as Victoria and into the Bass Strait \u2026 we’ve also seen them come up north as far as Bondi.”<\/p>\n
Twenty-one marine turtles have also been tagged at sites on the Mid North Coast and near Sydney as part \u00a0of the project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A colony of seals on the New South Wales Far South Coast has been fitted with tracking devices…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,83434,83439,83435,83438,25270,128,83440,83437,83436,338],"class_list":["post-117835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-baranguba","tag-fur-seal-study-nsw","tag-montague-island","tag-new-zealand-fur-seal","tag-npws","tag-science","tag-seal-research-nsw","tag-seal-study-nsw","tag-taronga-zoo","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}