DoC has been approached for comment. Staff had previously expected the seal to return to the water when it was ready.
“[In] the last few years, this is probably the third one that I’ve seen. We had a massive, huge leopard seal in Oriental Parade by the boat sheds for a time,” DoC ranger Melody McLaughlin told RNZ a week ago.
“He’s perfectly happy having the snooze on the beach here, and he will go when he’s good and ready to go back into the water.”