The number of sea lion pups in New Zealand is worrying low and the government has been forced to do something about it.
The government is bringing in a management plan for the endangered New Zealand sea lion.
New numbers show that 1575 pups were counted on the subantarctic Auckland Islands this year.
This is down 18 per cent on last year’s count.
Conservation Minister Nick Smith, who is on board the HMNZS Wellington visiting the Auckland Islands, today described the low count as “cause for concern”.
It is the third lowest number since monitoring began in the mid-1990s.
The sad news is that this number shows an on-going trend of decline over the last decade of the world’s rarest sea lion.
Article written by Editor
