New Zealand: Matakaea Reserve
A year and a day ago we continued north from the Orkokonui Ecosanctuary and stopped at the Matakaea Reserve, where we saw gulls and fur seals (Arctocephalus forsteri) sharing coastal rocks surrounded by bull kelp (Durvillaea antarctica or D. poha) darker than the yellow strain we’d seen at Stirling Point three days earlier.
Click for greater size and detail.
Most of the seals, like the one below, drowsed on the rocks. (Thanks to a 280mm focal length and some cropping of the image, you might think I was closer than I actually was.)
A few of the seals shook off their lethargy and mixed it up.
© 2018 Steven Schwartzman
The information about Matakaea that you linked mentioned large, round boulders as a feature of the area. I wonder if those aren’t the concretions that you showed after one of your trips.
There’s a sense of something I’d call ‘heaviness’ in these photos. They aren’t heavy in the sense of being gloomy or depressing; it’s more a matter of size and heft. The rocks, the seals, and even the kelp don’t have a bit of delicacy to them; it’s possible to see how everything fits together in a way that reflects the environment around them.
shoreacres
February 28, 2018 at 6:57 AM
You have a good memory. The best-known of those round concretions are the ones at Moeraki:
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2017/04/11/new-zealand-moeraki-boulders/
The “heaviness” you inferred from these pictures isn’t something I felt. I’d say the swirling patterns in all the bull kelp you saw from Stirling Point, along with the yellow versus brown, account for a large part of the difference. And of course seals are by nature clunky on land.
Steve Schwartzman
February 28, 2018 at 9:06 AM
It would be wonderful to be able to stretch out like that, on a rock, or beach, and sleep so blissfully. (But I guess I’d rather have the comfortable padding on my mattress, and not my midsection.)
Robert Parker
February 28, 2018 at 7:37 AM
Well said about the placement of the padding, with extrinsic being favored over intrinsic for people (especially those of us of a certain age), and the opposite for seals.
Steve Schwartzman
February 28, 2018 at 9:08 AM
I notice these creatures have ears – are they seals or sea lions?
Heyjude
February 28, 2018 at 7:54 AM
Good catch~I just looked it up to be sure and you’re right, ear flaps suggests sea lions.
melissabluefineart
February 28, 2018 at 8:15 AM
I hadn’t paid attention to a distinction. I see now from looking at the pictures in the link I provided that the New Zealand fur seal does indeed have ear flaps.
Steve Schwartzman
February 28, 2018 at 9:13 AM
For heaven’s sake, even their seals are different!
melissabluefineart
March 1, 2018 at 8:50 AM
Another chance to say “Vive la différence!”
Steve Schwartzman
March 1, 2018 at 9:23 AM
I remember seeing both in California and reading about the differences.
Heyjude
February 28, 2018 at 9:27 AM
Then you were way ahead of me. I’d always assumed the two are the same.
Steve Schwartzman
February 28, 2018 at 9:40 AM
You’ve got a better memory than I~ I remembered reading about the differences, but not what they were! 🙂
melissabluefineart
March 1, 2018 at 8:49 AM
Beautiful images. The first one looks like a painting. In P.R. there are rocky beaches such as these, although of course, there are no seals there.
Maria
February 28, 2018 at 6:04 PM
Is that because the waters around Puerto Rico are too warm?
Steve Schwartzman
February 28, 2018 at 9:38 PM
Yes. Seals like the colder waters. I think the only seal-like mammal that likes warm waters is the manatee. I saw it in Florida once.
Maria
February 28, 2018 at 9:48 PM
In 2012 there was a rare sighting of a manatee in Galveston:
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Rare-manatee-sighting-in-Galveston-3924028.php
Steve Schwartzman
March 1, 2018 at 6:26 AM
Thanks for the link. Yes, apparently they either migrate to the upper Texas Gulf Coast, or to the coast of eastern States in the summer. Then they migrate south again. The ones I saw were in the Gulf coast. They are the only ones that compose the ‘sirenia’ order, imagine, and they are far from looking like sea nymphs. Yet, their gentle nature constantly pushes them to the verge of extinction.
Maria
March 1, 2018 at 7:16 AM
Yes, it’s a shame how they’ve become endangered, in part due to their docility. Boats have sometimes proved fatal.
Steve Schwartzman
March 1, 2018 at 7:36 AM