Auckland's resident leopard seal Owha has had a health scare after she was found with fishing gear in her mouth.
File photo. Photo: Supplied / Giverny Forbes, Leopardseals.org
The seal, who is known for lounging around the Westhaven Marina, had hooks, a fishing line and a sinker removed from her mouth last week.
Volunteers from Leopardseals.org were involved in the rescue attempt.
Leopardseals.org co-founder Ingrid Visser was one of the rescuers.
She told Morning Report the team at Westhaven Marina had spotted Owha with a line, swivels and snap hooks hanging out of her mouth.
"So we deployed down to Auckland in collaboration with the Department of Conservation and the Auckland Zoo vet team and we came up with a plan and and we removed all of the external gear.
"We had a very long pole that the vets had with a cutting tool on the end and we could get the pole in close enough to her and we had to go very very slowly so we didn't disturb her. She was so not phased by what was going on. At one point she actually put her head on top of the pole and was resting her head on it so that went all really, really well."
However, the team could not get the internal hook out.
"That would actually require capturing her and putting her under anaesthetic, and that's been very high-risk thing for leopard seals in the past. At this stage we're just monitoring her to see what's happened.
"We're hopeful that the hook will eventually rust away and the line that's inside her, she'll just poop that out."
Visser said there were 'handfuls of foam coming out of her mouth so she was obviously very distressed by it".
She asked anyone with more information about what happened to Owha to get in touch.
