Photographing seals in New Zealand

The secret is out! I love the seals in New Zealand!

Ok I know, not much of a secret. If you follow along on Instagram you know I take every chance I can to get to the coast to spend some quality time with the fur babies of the ocean.

I consider myself very lucky to be able to just see them let alone photograph their cuteness. And if I’m honest, I could and have easily spent all day watching them on shore. Which is why I have hundreds of photos of seals and is why I welcome you to a photo essay of the fur seals in New Zealand!

A lot of people just think oh ya, just a seal but they’re pretty fun and unique creatures. Here are some facts about seals in New Zealand to get you as excited about them as I am and tips for photographing seals.

Fur seals dive deeper and longer than any other seal. Females are occasionally known to go as deep as 238 meters for up to 11 minutes. They usually dive for 1-2 minutes to a depth of 22 meters as this is where their food is. Come fall and winter, as their food is migrating, they tend to dive deeper than 100 meters more often.

As I said, they are the fur babies of the sea (in my opinion) and just like dogs their life span is about 12-15 years.

The Maori name for fur seals in New Zealand is ‘kekeno’ meaning ‘look around’ and ‘whakahao’ for sea lions.

There was a time in history where the fur seals of New Zealand were almost hunted to extinction by Polynesian and European settlers for their fur. Fortunately, the species held on and were able to come to increase populations. There is not a huge concern about declines but threats still exists. These include being accidentally capture during trawling, the seals get caught up and drown, marine debris and garbage from humans, and sadly dog attacks.

It’s pretty amazing that here in New Zealand you really don’t have to go far to see seals and it’s not difficult to spot them. Unlike penguins, seals laze around on the beach and rocky shores and aren’t too worried about hiding from humans.

Where to find seals in New Zealand?

They can be found all over the country and in Australia (only fur seals) but have higher populations in the south island. Some places you can see seals in New Zealand are:

SOUTH ISLAND

• Kaikoura
• Akaroa
• Moeraki (the lighthouse)
• Shag point
• Otago Peninsula – Sandfly Bay (Dunedin)
• Nugget Point (The Caitlins)
• Cape Foulwind (Westport)

NORTH ISLAND

• Cape Palliser
• Sinclair Head (Wellington)

What is the difference between fur seals and sea lions you may ask. Fur seals in New Zealand have a more pointy noise and are generally smaller. Fur seals are also found in Australia whereas sea lions are endemic to New Zealand. Fur seals also tend to like rocky shores whereas sea lions like sandy beaches.

Tips for photographing seals (not from the water)

• Patience!
  • it’s not too hard to spot seals but it does require patience to catch a funny expression or see them playing in the water.
• Composition!
  • try positioning the animal in different parts of the frame not just right in the center
  • get on their level!
• Focus
  • focus on the animal’s eyes and get it nice and sharp. This is where a viewer will be drawn into the photo. If the eyes are blurry it just wont work
• Shutter speed
  • if the seal is moving you’ll want a faster shutter speed to get a sharp image. Since they are darker in colour this will mean you’ll need to bump up your ISO
  • seals don’t tend to move around very much though so you can play around with shutter speed
• Aperture
  • unless you’re viewing seals from on the water, you usually find them lazing around. I tend to use a low aperture (4.0 or 5.6) for focus on the seal and a shallow depth of field/blurred background (bokeh)
• Lens
  • If you can I suggest bringing a 70-300 mm lens or a 70-200 mm lens. This gives you choice for focal length and 300 mm allows you to get up close without physically being too close

Be ETHICAL!

Seals obviously are the bomb.com (yes I just use that!) and can come across as dosile animals.

If you see one though stay at least 20 meters away.

Do not feed them, disturb them or try and touch them. I have seen a family put their small child by a seal for a photo, about 3 meters away. The seal was fine at first and all of a sudden was not a happy camper. They can move faster than you think and this is their home, so leave them alone.

Have you seen the beautiful seals in New Zealand!