50° 31’S 166° 17’E

We’re back on Enderby Island for the afternoon, as the weather is preventing us from landing at Ranui Cove, the site of the old Coastwatchers hut. I don’t mind. In fact, I’m overjoyed at the prospect of spending some time with the Sea lion colony that I had neglected to visit yesterday! New Zealand Sea lions are some of the most endangered in the world – and they’re rapidly declining. Sandy Bay on Enderby Island is one of their breeding strongholds.

I sit on the hill overlooking the bay, and watch Sea lion dramas unfold through a long lens. Males defend their patches of territory on the beach, white sand frothing up in the wind. They’re huge, crusted with sand and blood, wild dark eyes and yellow teeth flashing as they try to rip chunks of fur out of each other. Bull Sea lions have a hard life. Only the strongest get to breed, and staking out their claim and fighting throughout the breeding season is an exhausting business.

In quiet corners of the beach, pups are curled up against their mothers. They’re so tiny. Entirely dependent on their mothers for the first year of their life, they remain on land for long periods while their mothers go to sea to forage. These trips can take them up to 175km away, and females NZ Sea lions have the longest and deepest foraging trips of any seal species. While most dives last around five minutes and take the Sea lions to around 200m depths, they can reach depths of up to 700m. Research on the foraging behaviour of Sea lions around the Auckland Islands suggests that these animals are operating at the limits of what they’re capable of in terms of dive depth and duration. Pushing their physiological boundaries like this leaves them vulnerable to threats such as disease, environmental fluctuations, and pollution.

Females start breeding at around 4 years old, and have one pup every 1-2 years. But pups don’t always survive – some are stillborn, some are squashed by rampaging bulls, and some are killed by disease. In 1998, 2002 and 2003, bacterial epidemics killed hundreds of pups and some adults in the Sandy Bay colony. It’s just one of the contributing factors thought to be causing the decline in the New Zealand Sea lion population. Pup mortality is naturally high in some seal species – but in combination with adults being caught in squid trawling nets, and the pressure of fishing on their food supply, our Sea lions are under severe threat. When female Sea Lions are killed, three animals are lost – not only her and the pup that depends on her, but the pup she is inevitably carrying, as Sea lions mate within a week of giving birth. 

Skuas mill around the colony, scrapping with one another, gliding overhead, and tugging at the umbilical cord of a stillborn pup, still vigorously defended by its mother. In between roars and snaps at the scavengers, she lays her head over the tiny body. Other mothers are curled up with fat pups suckling, and at the back of the beach are the wriggling brown masses of ‘puppy piles’ – pups sticking together for warmth and safety while their mothers are foraging at sea.

Males wade through the dozing females – indiscriminately treading on flippers and pups, Skuas scattering before them. They’re eyeing up females who are nearly ready to mate again, and there’s a lot of roaring and biting. The females are so small against the males massive bulk, but they stand up to them nonetheless, resolutely protecting the pups beside them and warding off advances.  

At the shoreline, a guard of males stands between the females and the water. They attempt to pass in groups, waiting for one to make the charge and following at rapid pace, hurling themselves into the waves. As soon as they’re in the water, they streak off like torpedoes. It’s a seamless change from lumbering on land to where they’re most at home – in the water. The males give chase, catching and biting the females that weren’t fast enough, before turning back to await the next group. I can feel eyes on me, and turn slightly to find myself eye-to-eye with a Skua. They’re intelligent, cheeky birds. Chris Muller, one of the researchers on the island, tells me one landed on his head the other day. Just landed, lightly, then took off again. Having been taste-tested by an inquisitive individual on Macquarie Island (at another Sandy Bay), I know their beaks are the end to avoid. But this one just regards me with clever brown eyes, before settling down to preen. I turn back to the beach, content to let them sit peacefully behind me – with my hood protecting the back of my neck!

The afternoon passes to a chorus of wavering bleats from the pups, breathy roars from the bulls, and the husky groans of mothers as they return and search for their pups. Skuas and gulls scream and fight over dead pups. The wind is a constant, hissing through the grass and whispering sand along the beach. It’s so amazing to just sit and watch the goings-on of a different world. To really appreciate the habitat of the most endangered Sea lion, which historically was found all along the New Zealand coast. They don’t know they’re endangered – the just carry on with their lives as they always have. But we do – and it’s up to us to look after them.