Southern elephant seals
It’s six weeks until the Nuyina comes back to Macca for resupply and to take us home. I started looking through my camera roll to get some photos for this article and to prompt me on what to write about. Looking through, it feels like any picture taken before about three weeks ago was taken by a totally different person, which I suppose is true in a lot of ways.
Anyway, check out these beauties! No neighbourhood barking dogs down here; the animal sounds are much different. Southern elephant seals are the largest of the pinnipeds, some of the big ol’ 'beachmasters' weighing four tonnes. They are also extremely loud. In the breeding season they will pull in next to a big rock to exaggerate their bellowing and ward off threats to their reign over the harem. I had never seen an elephant seal, and probably didn’t even know there was such a thing, this time last year. But after being around them every day and watching and counting them daily, as they gave birth to a new generation of 'elies', I have become very fond of them.
Dom Smith, plumber, 78th ANARE
