A baby female sea lion who was shot along with her mother in September, 2024. Photo: Giverny Forbes
The reward for information leading to a conviction for the killing of a sea lion pup and its mother has been extended to include a third killing.
It has been revealed a third sea lion killed in The Catlins last November was likely stabbed by a human.
Now the reward for information leading to the killers convictions of either incident sits at $12,000, thanks to donations.
A baby female sea lion was shot and left to die in The Catlins Estuary in the lower South Island in September last year.
The following month the pup's mum, Jade, who was well known in region, was found shot dead.
The third sea lion had to be euthanised in November after she was found badly injured at Waipati Beach.
A post mortem has revealed the wounds are "most consistent with human induced stabbing".
The New Zealand Sea Lion Trust announced that upon finding this information, it was extending the reward to include the third young female.
The trust's Jordana Whyte told Checkpoint the attack on the third sea lion caused serious and violent injuries.
"It was quite awful and very confronting for those who went to her aid. She was, it appears, that she was stabbed twice and the injuries were quite significant."
She said while it is unclear where or why the attack occurred, there were a number of things that could have caused the incident.
"I certainly can't understand, as a conservationist and sea lion advocate, why somebody would choose to do this, but we do hear things in the community about confrontations with sea lions, where people are feeling that sea lions are taking fish that belong to humans," Whyte said.
"Or perhaps they've had an encounter with the sea lion that made the person afraid and their response to being afraid was to be angry."
Whyte believes the deaths of Jade and her pup are connected, and while the pair were found at separate times, it is likely they were shot together.
It remains unclear if the third killing has any relation.
The area where she was found rarely receives visits from the public, meaning monitoring activity is difficult.
"It was actually incredibly fortunate that, the sea lion, somebody came across her," Whyte said.
"It can't be just us, and it can't just be DOC or police, it has to be the whole community effort to make sure that our coastlines are safe for sea lions."
Whyte said losing three females in particular was a huge blow to the population.
"This is a really, really slow growing species in terms of reproducing."
She said the entire incident was awful for everyone involved, particularly the volunteers who put so much time and energy into the animals.
"We're all volunteers at the trust to look after these animals and to have somebody to do that in such a violent way that allowed the animal to suffer was just awful."
Anyone that has information about any of the three sea lion deaths is urged to reach out to the Sea Lion Trust, Police or the Department of Conservation.
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