{"id":805722,"date":"2026-07-17T08:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T08:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/805722\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T08:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T08:26:11","slug":"seal-spotted-lounging-on-coles-bay-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/805722\/","title":{"rendered":"Seal spotted lounging on Coles Bay Road"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A seal has brought traffic to a crawl after taking to the road at Coles Bay on Tasmania\u2019s east coast today. <\/p>\n<p>Footage shared on social media shows the seal shuffling along the road before settling in the middle of it.<\/p>\n<p>Other clips show it watching cars pass from the roadside, while photos capture the animal \u2013 noticeably smaller than viral sensation Neil the seal \u2013 lounging on the bitumen.<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Natural Resources and Environment said seals naturally came ashore and urged people to keep their distance.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"70881\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/pulsetasmania.com.au\/8a26f3db-c90zolpdbmklqtb_kp4jx_mjlwx\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8a26f3db-c90zolpdbmklqtb_kp4jx_mjlwx.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1536,1024\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"8a26f3db-c90zolpdbmklqtb_kp4jx_mjlwx\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Drivers on Tasmania\u2019s east coast were surprised by the seal on the road. Image \/ Jake Bourke&lt;\/p&gt;&#10;\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/cdn.pulsetasmania.com.au\/images\/pmg\/8a26f3db-c90zolpdbmklqtb_kp4jx_mjlwx-300x200.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/cdn.pulsetasmania.com.au\/images\/pmg\/8a26f3db-c90zolpdbmklqtb_kp4jx_mjlwx-1024x683.jpg\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" class=\"size-full wp-image-70881\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8a26f3db-c90zolpdbmklqtb_kp4jx_mjlwx.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1536\" height=\"1024\"  \/>Drivers on Tasmania\u2019s east coast were surprised by the seal on the road. Image \/ Jake Bourke<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople can help keep seals safe when they come ashore by practicing good seal observing behaviour,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRemember to stay at least 20 metres away and dogs on leashes must be kept at least 50 metres away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"70879\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/pulsetasmania.com.au\/8a26f3db-cmpwq4dbj1gtd6e_gjij1_c4tfz\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8a26f3db-cmpwq4dbj1gtd6e_gjij1_c4tfz.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1536,1024\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"8a26f3db-cmpwq4dbj1gtd6e_gjij1_c4tfz\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;A seal was spotted shuffling down the middle of Coles Bay Road this morning. Image \/ Skye Anderton&lt;\/p&gt;&#10;\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/cdn.pulsetasmania.com.au\/images\/pmg\/8a26f3db-cmpwq4dbj1gtd6e_gjij1_c4tfz-300x200.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/cdn.pulsetasmania.com.au\/images\/pmg\/8a26f3db-cmpwq4dbj1gtd6e_gjij1_c4tfz-1024x683.jpg\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" class=\"size-full wp-image-70879\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8a26f3db-cmpwq4dbj1gtd6e_gjij1_c4tfz.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1536\" height=\"1024\"  \/>A seal was spotted shuffling down the middle of Coles Bay Road this morning. Image \/ Skye Anderton<\/p>\n<p>Sightings can be reported to the marine mammal hotline on 0427 WHALES (0427 942 537).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A seal has brought traffic to a crawl after taking to the road at Coles Bay on Tasmania\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":805723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":["post-805722","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\/805722","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=805722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/805723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}