{"id":514105,"date":"2026-03-02T15:27:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T15:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/514105\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T15:27:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T15:27:11","slug":"long-nosed-fur-seal-spotted-in-sydneys-urban-waterway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/514105\/","title":{"rendered":"Long-nosed fur seal spotted in Sydney\u2019s urban waterway"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Caitlin<\/p>\n

Updated March 2, 2026 \u2014 2:38pm,first published 11:23am<\/p>\n

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Seals are frequent visitors to Sydney Harbour and occasionally Botany Bay<\/a>, but they are not often seen in the highly urbanised and polluted Cooks River.<\/p>\n

For the past week, Sydneysiders have been spotting a seal resting on the banks of the Cooks, as far upstream as Earlwood.<\/p>\n

\"AA long-nosed fur seal was spotted resting beside the Cooks River at Wolli Creek on Sunday.Tim Gillard<\/p>\n

Craig Ryan, a spokesman for the Organisation for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia (ORRCA), said members of the public first reported the seal on February 22. In the past week, it has been spotted at Kyeemagh on the bay, Muddy Creek at the mouth of the river, and upstream at Wolli Creek and Earlwood.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve noted the condition of the seal is declining, but there\u2019s no determination of the cause, and it hauls back in before we can get to it,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cWe\u2019re working with the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) to assess it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryan said members of the public should stay at least 40 metres away, keep dogs well clear, and report further sightings to the ORRCA 24\/7 Rescue Hotline on (02) 9415 3333.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

NPWS has assessed the animal for bird flu symptoms and does not plan to euthanise it, but will continue to monitor it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough the animal is lean, it is active and has no obvious sign of injuries or other health concerns,\u201d an NPWS spokesperson said. \u201cIt is not unusual for seals to be found in coastal inlets and other waterways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Based on photographs, the seal is a long-nosed fur seal \u2013 also called a New Zealand fur seal \u2013 while sex is yet to be determined.<\/p>\n

Wildlife scientist Dr Vanessa Pirotta said this was the same species as the seals often seen resting on the VIP stairs at the Sydney Opera House.<\/p>\n

Pirotta is the chief scientist for citizen science project Wild Sydney Harbour which, along with groups such as the Gamay Rangers, is trying to understand how seals use Sydney\u2019s waterways<\/a>. The long-nosed fur seals often swam up from Montague Island on the South Coast, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt reminds us how we coexist with these creatures in the urban environment, but often we don\u2019t see them,\u201d Pirotta said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most famous ones occupy the steps of the Opera House, but those are healthy animals resting between feeds. This one is skeletal and probably unwell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryan said seals would sometimes travel up rivers either to rest or to find food, but was \u201cquite remarkable\u201d to have one in the Cooks.<\/p>\n

Jason L\u2019Ecuyer from the Cooks River Alliance said it was a positive sign to see life in the river, not only the seal but also mullet spawning, although the water quality continued to be poor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not making a lot of gains in terms of improving water quality,\u201d L\u2019Ecuyer said. \u201cIf it\u2019s gaunt, I would hope it\u2019s coming up a healthy river for refuge, but that\u2019s not the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Get to the heart of what\u2019s happening with climate change and the environment. Sign up for our fortnightly Environment newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"CaitlinCaitlin Fitzsimmons<\/a> is the environment and climate reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald. She was previously the social affairs reporter and the Money editor.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated March 2, 2026 \u2014 2:38pm,first published 11:23am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":["post-514105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514105","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=514105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}