{"id":579793,"date":"2026-08-25T11:12:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T11:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/579793\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T11:12:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T11:12:16","slug":"sightings-of-sammy-the-seal-lying-near-dead-birds-in-portland-spark-community-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/579793\/","title":{"rendered":"Sightings of ‘Sammy’ the seal lying near dead birds in Portland spark community concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

For seven years, Scott Kempton has taken boats out of the waters of Portland, Victoria for maintenance, but for the past three weeks, he has used a long-handled shovel to clear the same slipway of dozens of dead birds.<\/p>\n

“There was one day last week where there was 22,” the slipway operator said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Scott Kempton says Sammy is “not as aggro” as Tasmania’s famous “Neil the seal”. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

While the removal efforts were partly to prevent “stinking the joint out”, Mr Kempton’s mission is further fuelled by the presence of “Sammy”, a celebrity seal.<\/p>\n

Locals have seen the multi-tonne elephant seal resting near birds that have died close to one of his frequent hang-out spots.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The first one was a [crested] tern,” said Mr Kempton, a resident of the coastal city in the state’s south west.<\/p>\n

“He was laying with it for probably five or six hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“[The locals] are worried that he’ll get bird flu and he’ll tip over.”\"A<\/p>\n

Locals have called for elephant seals, like Sammy, to be protected at all costs. (Supplied: Helen Oakley)<\/p>\n

Attention on the ground<\/p>\n

The concerns come as Australia confirms the first bird flu mammal death<\/a> in a long-nosed fur seal \u2014 a different species of seal to Sammy \u2014 at Beachport on SA’s Limestone Coast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Portland residents are calling for authorities to protect the local icon and other seals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“They are vaccinating penguins as it’s a money raiser,” resident Helen Oakley said.<\/p>\n

“Why not ensure this unique seal is protected at all costs?”\"two<\/p>\n

Locals have taken to bagging and removing dead birds from Portland’s beaches. (ABC News: Jean Bell)<\/p>\n

Ms Oakley, who is a wildlife advocate, said authorities should ensure there were no bird carcasses around Sammy when the seal was resting on land.<\/p>\n

She said she recently counted 15 dead terns near Sammy.<\/p>\n

High-profile and high-risk<\/p>\n

Across the subantarctic, the population of southern elephant seals like Sammy have been dealt a heavy blow by the deadly avian flu.\u00a0<\/p>\n

University of Tasmania Antarctic ecologist Jane Younger worked on the island of South Georgia, where tens of thousands of seal pups died from the virus.<\/p>\n

“We’re coming ashore and there’s hundreds or even thousands of carcasses in some places,” she said<\/p>\n

Dr Younger said not a lot could be done to limit the spread of bird flu among elephant seals, though a vaccine trial on northern elephant seals in the United States was underway.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Sammy near a dead seagull. (Supplied: Scott Kempton)<\/p>\n

But she said Sammy’s isolation may actually help the seal avoid infection.<\/p>\n

“He doesn’t have other seals to transmit it to him, so that’s a good thing,” she said.<\/p>\n

“But he could get it from infected birds, or possibly the environment if the environment is infected.<\/p>\n

“Carcass removal from the area that he’s living is something that could be looked at, but making sure that’s all done in a safe way.”<\/p>\n

Keep a distance\"A<\/p>\n

Sammy the elephant seal is a regular visitor to the south-west Victorian town of Portland. (Supplied: Shirley Stanford)<\/p>\n

Back in Portland, Ms Oakley called on people to keep away from elephant seals to ensure their safety and that of the mammal.<\/p>\n

“If the seal does attack anyone it gets euthanased, so please follow guidelines to protect it all costs,” she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Oakley said there had been “idiot people” getting too close to Sammy the seal and harassing and yelling at the mammal.<\/p>\n

“They need to back off and let the animal rest in peace and quiet, particularly with the prevalence of bird flu,” she said.<\/p>\n

She said people needed to stay 30 metres away from a seal, and keep dogs away.<\/p>\n

Mr Kempton said while he was satisfied with the Victorian government’s response, he believed many in the community were angry at what they felt had been inaction.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Sammy the elephant seal at the port in Portland.\u00a0 (Supplied: Helen Oakley)<\/p>\n

“I don’t really know what the government can do,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s a bird flu, [birds] are going to die.<\/p>\n

“You can’t stop the birds from dying, but if people keep moving them away from [Sammy], it\u2019s got to help.”<\/p>\n

The Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n

More news from regional SA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For seven years, Scott Kempton has taken boats out of the waters of Portland, Victoria for maintenance, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[71379,30681,19976,91890,13200,30716,111,139,69,285712,147,91604,57005,133566,158826,406],"class_list":["post-579793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-avian-influenza","tag-bird-flu","tag-birds","tag-elephant-seals","tag-limestone-coast","tag-mammals","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sammy-the-seal","tag-science","tag-sea-lions","tag-seals","tag-south-west-victoria","tag-terns","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}