The New Zealand Sea Lion (Phocarctos hookeri) also known as Hooker's Sea Lion or Whakahao in Māori

Maori language

Māori or te reo Māori , commonly te reo , is the language of the indigenous population of New Zealand, the Māori. It has the status of an official language in New Zealand...

 is a species of sea lion

Sea Lion

Sea lions are pinnipeds characterized by external ear-flaps, long fore-flippers, the ability to walk on all fours, and short thick hair. Together with the fur seal, they comprise the family Otariidae, or eared seals. There are six extant and one extinct species in five genera...

 that breeds around the coast of New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

's South Island

South Island

The South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean...

 and Stewart Island/Rakiura

Stewart Island/Rakiura

Stewart Island/Rakiura is the third-largest island of New Zealand. It lies south of the South Island, across Foveaux Strait. Its permanent population is slightly over 400 people, most of whom live in the settlement of Oban.- History and naming :...

 to some extent, and to a greater extent around the New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands

New Zealand sub-antarctic islands

The five southernmost groups of the New Zealand Outlying Islands form the New Zealand Sub-Antarctic islands. These islands are collectively designated as an UNESCO World Heritage Site....

, especially the Auckland Islands

Auckland Islands

The Auckland Islands are an archipelago of the New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands and include Auckland Island, Adams Island, Enderby Island, Disappointment Island, Ewing Island, Rose Island, Dundas Island and Green Island, with a combined area of...

. It is monotypic of its genus.

Characteristics and taxonomy

New Zealand lions, like all otariids, have marked sexual dimorphism. Adult males are 240-350 cm long and weigh 320-450 kg and adult females are 180-200 cm long and weigh 90-165 kg. At birth, pups are 70-100 cm long and weigh 7-8 kg; the natal pelage is a thick coat of dark brown hair that becomes dark gray with cream markings on the top of the head, nose, tail and at the base of the flippers. Adult females' coats vary from buff to creamy gray with darker pigmentation around the muzzle and the flippers. Adult males are blackish-brown with a well-developed black mane of coarse hair reaching the shoulders.

Endangered

As one of the larger New Zealand animals

New Zealand animals

The animals of New Zealand have a particularly interesting history because, before the arrival of humans, less than 900 years ago, the country was completely free of mammals, except those that could swim there or fly there...

, it has been a protected species since the 1890s, is in decline and considered the most threatened in the world.

It has been inferred from midden

Midden

A midden, is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, vermin, shells, sherds, lithics , and other artifacts and ecofacts associated with past human occupation...

s that the Hooker's sea lion was made locally extinct in the Chatham Islands

Chatham Islands

The Chatham Islands are an archipelago and New Zealand territory in the Pacific Ocean consisting of about ten islands within a radius, the largest of which are Chatham Island and Pitt Island. Their name in the indigenous language, Moriori, means Misty Sun...

 due to predation by the Moriori

Moriori

Moriori are the indigenous people of the Chatham Islands , east of the New Zealand archipelago in the Pacific Ocean...

. There was thought to be a population of around 15,000 in the mid-1990s. This may have declined somewhat since an outbreak of disease in 1998 caused the deaths of an estimated 20 percent of adult females and 50 percent of pups that year. Estimates (based on pup-counts) were about 9,000 for 2008.

In 2010 the Department of Conservation - responsible for marine mammal conservation - changed the New Zealand Threat Classification System

New Zealand Threat Classification System

The New Zealand Threat Classification System is used by the Department of Conservation to assess conservation priorities of species in New Zealand....

 ranking from Nationally Endangered to Nationally Critical.

Bycatch

A Court of Appeal of New Zealand

Court of Appeal of New Zealand

The Court of Appeal of New Zealand, located in Wellington, is New Zealand’s principal intermediate appellate court. In practice, most appeals are resolved at this intermediate appellate level, rather than in the Supreme Court...

 judgement of 7 April 2004, (with the reasons issued separately on 13 July 2004 (CA39/04)), overturned a decision by the Minister of Fisheries that only 62 sea lions could be taken as bycatch

Bycatch

The term “bycatch” is usually used for fish caught unintentionally in a fishery while intending to catch other fish. It may however also indicate untargeted catch in other forms of animal harvesting or collecting...

 by squid

Squid

Squid are cephalopods of the order Teuthida, which comprises around 300 species. Like all other cephalopods, squid have a distinct head, bilateral symmetry, a mantle, and arms. Squid, like cuttlefish, have eight arms arranged in pairs and two, usually longer, tentacles...

 fishers, based on advice from the New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries. The Court increased the bycatch to 124 sea lions in the 2004 season, saying the Minister's imposition of the lower figure (one of the lowest ever imposed in the 20-year history of such restrictions) was going beyond what the law required.

In January 2009 the Fisheries Minister allowed a kill of 113 sea lions by the squid fishery, an increase in 40 percent over the previous season. This was condemned by the Forest and Bird conservation organisation since the sea lion population is under threat and in decline.

Images

New Zealand Sea Lions on an Enderby Island Enderby Island, New Zealand -External links:***...  beach.	New Zealand Sea Lions are surprisingly good climbers. This pup has been left by its mother adjacent to a hut on Auckland Is (an altitude of approximately 200 metres).	A New Zealand Sea Lion nursing at Enderby Island, New Zealand Enderby Island, New Zealand -External links:***... .	Close up

External links

• New Zealand Sea Lion at the Department of Conservation
• Encyclopedia of New Zealand - New Zealand sea lion
• ARKive - images and movies of the Hooker's sea lion (Phocarctos hookeri)