<- Pakake NZ sea lions field trip videos
Pakake return to the mainland
Rauhina Scott-Fyfe
Ki a Takaroa, kei te moana, kei te mihi ki a koutou katoa. Ki kā mauka whakahī, ki te whenua nei, kei te mihi. Ki te awa e rere nei, rere tonu, rere tonu. Ka huri kā whakaaro ki a rātou kua mate, rātou kua hinga, moe mai, okioki mai rā. Rātou ki a rātou, tātou ki a tātou, te hunga ora, kei te mihi. Ki te mana whenua o tēnei rohe, Kāi Tahu, Kāti Mamoe, Waitaha whānui, kei te mihi. He mihi hoki ki kā pakake kua hoki mai ai ki Te Waipounamu, ki Aotearoa nei, kei te mihi, kei te mihi.
Andrew
Nau mai, haere mai ki Taiari. Welcome to Taiari.
You’ve brought us out here Robyn to the Taiari River mouth. Beautiful day, stunning location! But it’s quite a significant location isn’t it?
Robyn
It is a very significant location, Andrew. We're out here today because I really wanted to show you where the pakake, the sea lions, first came and had pups in New Zealand. So, it’s over there Andrew.
Andrew
Yeah, just over there.
Robyn
Subsequently she was called ‘Mum’, because she was the beginning of a whakapapa of sea lions on the Otago coast. She had eleven pups in all. Her first pup was Catcher. Her second was Leone. And then Susie. And then Bill. And they were born along this coast.
Andrew
So this is the first sea lion that's come back, the first pakake, after they kind of disappeared from the mainland?
Robyn
Yeah, they think it's about 200 years since pakake bred in New Zealand or had pups in New Zealand. So this lone female from the Auckland Islands. And George McIntosh, who lived in the farm above it, took great care to chase away the dogs and babysit Mum’s first pup.
Andrew
Wicked. So that's quite significant. As a local, generational family here that must be quite significant, quite meaningful to you and to the people around here?
Robyn
Yeah, as Ngāi Tahu or as a Ngāi Tahu descendant, yeah, we're so excited. And the other locals are as well. It's a pretty special thing to have the pakake come back here and breed here in New Zealand and on this coastline. So we feel privileged and we really want to take great care of them. My dad was pretty much involved, Martin Palmer, and his good friend, as I said, George McIntosh. And yeah, it's passed on down the generations. So it's up to me to take care of them now. And after that, my son and then my moko, my granddaughter. Yeah.
Andrew
Yeah, excellent.
Well, thanks for bringing us out here. It's nice to come to these places and think about the significance of a species coming back to the mainland, repopulating itself after having a pretty hard time.
So kia ora. Thanks very much for bringing us here.
Robyn
You're welcome.
Monitoring Pakake
Andrew
Kia ora e te whānau. Right now we're at Smails Beach with Jim. And Jim is from Te Papa Atawhai | Department of Conservation. Beautiful location! And actually just up there is a male pakake, sea lion; sunning himself on the beach. Having a little moe on the beach, Jim.
We heard the great story about Mum, that first female breeding on the shores of Aotearoa for a long, long time. And how is that population since those days back from 1993, how has that population grown?
Jim
Yes, well, Mum had four daughters that went on to breed. And it's really interesting looking at those family lines through the different daughters. We tag all the pups born here, so we do know the family tree. And because of that, we know that this season coming up, we have 34 potential breeding females. That doesn't mean that we're going to get 34 pups because some of the females will skip a year. They might not start breeding at four years of age, but most of them do.
Last year we had about 28 potential breeding females and from that we had 21 pups. We track Mum’s family really closely. Those pups being born at Christmas time, pretty much from 20th of December through to the 20th of January, we'll get maybe 25 pups born. They’ll be on beaches from Warrington in the north, through to Ocean View in the south, which are all pretty much city beaches that Dunedin folk go to for their holidays.
Andrew
And you were saying earlier that the pups will be with their mum, and not sure where dad is… they'll be in the bush sort of thing and then they start to come out. Must be quite cute to see those pups on the beach?
Jim
Yeah. Yeah, look the dads don’t invest much into the pups at all, actually. In fact, the females are very strategic and find really good hideaway places away from the coast to have their pups, because they really don't want to be bothered by the males. And so those pups are hidden, you know, maybe a little bit inland, up to a kilometre inland sometimes.
Andrew
Wow, that’s a long way.
Jim
Which can put them up against car parks and roads, and into all sorts of danger. But yeah, the mother’s nest down. And when the pups are about three or four weeks old, they start bringing them down to the coast, teaching them to swim. Yeah, just getting them ready for leaving their birthplace. And they'll progress from here to another inlet out on the peninsula, where the mothers congregate. They’re very social. They leave the pups together to play in a swimming pool. And then they'll head out to sea to forage. And leave the pups to play during the day.
Andrew
It's amazing you've got all that information. Does that come from the tagging system?
Jim
Yes. So we can connect them with a little flipper tag, it's got a number on it that is unique and we connect that with who the mother is. And then eventually the pups will actually be given a name by the New Zealand Sea Lion Trust and local rūnaka.
We do have microchips as well as the flipper tags. So eventually, because of the rough and tumble nature of those animals, the tags… the flipper tags might pull out, but they do also have a microchip that we can identify who they are later on. And because of the rough and tumble and yeah, they'll eventually end up with scars and various injuries that also helps us to identify individuals.
Andrew
Yeah, good point. Well, it's great, isn't it, you know, since those early 90s, that we've got that growing population and we’re finding out so much more about it. Really interesting, thanks Jim!
Jim
Yeah, it's pretty cool to have them on our doorstep.
Andrew
Kia ora.
Traditional Māori uses and values for pakake
Andrew
Kia ora koutou. Right now we’re at Allans Beach and this is Rachel. Rachel is an archaeologist, but you also whakapapa to the Ōtākou area and you've had involvement with pakake. You've been around them a lot. And I’m really interested though Rachel is, within your role as an archaeologist, you've found a lot about pakake from a mātauraka historical perspective. Talk to us a little bit about that.
Rachel
Yeah, so… have found that pakake were quite an important resource for our tūpuna here in southern Te Waipounamu. So not only were they used for food, in fact, they were quite an important source of food for our tūpuna. Everyone's heard of the moa hunters back from long-long-long ago. Well our tūpuna down here were pakake hunters just as much as they were moa hunters. They were really, really good at making sure nothing went to waste. So in addition to eating pakake, parts of the pakake were then used to make tools and clothing. And so just shows that integral, connected relationship that our tūpuna had with pakake. So one of the most common tools that we find with an archaeological and museum context that have come from pakake are fish hooks. They’re used for fishing out at sea. So the jawbone from the pakake was the most commonly used.
Andrew
Very strong.
Rachel
Yeah, you didn’t have to do too much shaping. So if you get this part of the jawbone here, you've already got, you know, the shank basically. And then just attaching or sometimes even they would leave a tooth in there and sort of just fix that in there, so the tooth became the point. Or if it didn’t have a tooth, the socket would be used to put a hook point in there and then lashed and used for fishing as well.
Andrew
Ka pai.
Rachel
Yeah, yeah.
Andrew
So that knowledge must really increase that connection that you have with pakake. You know, knowing about your tūpuna and the uses that they had, and now going forward with the population building, that must really strengthen your connection.
Rachel
Yeah, it does that and some of the oral histories that have come down as well. So there are whakatauākī or sayings from our tūpuna that have been collected over time. And there's one that I honestly cannot remember off the top of my head right now, but it refers to one of our important tūpuna from this area. That the only thing he was ever scared of was a pakake.
Andrew
Well just looking at them over there, a couple of big males. They can be quite intimidating.
But that's really neat. Thanks for giving us just that little insight. You know, because we're starting to build a bigger picture. You know, we're looking at the situation now, since breeding on the mainland, and having a bit of a look back in time as well. It’s building that bigger picture.
Kia ora Rachel.
Rachel
Kia ora.
Growing up with pakake
Andrew
Kia ora e te whānau. Ko Koreana tēnei. We're at a place called Te Rauone. And nearly every place we've been to today, we've seen pakake. That’s nothing unusual for you though is it Koreana? You've grown up around them.
Koreana
Yeah. So we lived on this beach when I was a kid and there was always pakake around; in the sand dunes, looking like dead logs on the beach.
Andrew
Yeah, they do.
Koreana
But yeah, today, who knows? I think, yeah, there's been a lot of erosion on this beach, a lot of tourists; changing environment. Pakake might not like it anymore.
Andrew
But you've really, you know, you've grown up around them, and you've sort of developed a real connection with the animals. You do a lot of conservation work anyway. But you've done a lot of work with pakake. Tell us more about that.
Koreana
Yeah. So a couple of years ago, I started going out with Jim Fyfe, tagging sea lion pups out at Aramoana and Hoopers Inlet. That was an awesome experience. I've always been terrified of sea lions. Still am! But they're so special; they're so important. And yeah, it's been amazing.
Andrew
That work, I mean, you're getting right up close to those pups. You have to catch them, literally. And tag them with that tag to help monitor them. That must be pretty scary stuff, like you say?
Koreana
Yeah, it's definitely scary.
Andrew
But exciting!
Koreana
So exciting. Yeah, it's good having a good team. A lot of people who can hold other sea lions off. So with the tagging, I've just been holding the seal pups. And they're so cute. They kind of look like dogs, but they're not as rough. Yeah.
Andrew
But you know, the fact that you've taken something that you've grown up around and you're actually doing some positive mahi involved in that kaupapa, that's really special that you're kind of giving back to nature in a way.
Koreana
Yeah, definitely. Yeah.
Andrew
And you're off to the Auckland Islands to do more of it!
Koreana
Yes. In January for three weeks.
Andrew
So, I mean, so what would you say to young people growing up and they might have other taoka species nearby? You know, what kind of advice or words would you offer them?
Koreana
Definitely get involved as much as you can. It's so special being able to interact with such amazing animals. Go for it! Just do it.
Andrew
And making a positive impact. Kia ora Koreana.
Koreana
Yeah, awesome.
Sharing the moana with pakake
Andrew
Kia ora e te whānau. Well, this is Suzi and her daughter, Georgia-Rae. And right now we're in Karitāne on the banks of Waikouaiti awa. Beautiful location. You people are locals that have interactions with pakake.
Suzi
Yeah.
Andrew
And we've seen a few already and that's something to really think about, isn't it? When you are coming into the environment of these beautiful creatures and having these interactions, there’s some things to consider. But you've got some really good examples of your own interactions with pakake, Suzi?
Suzi
Yeah. Sometimes we are out on our water and we are in on our waka. We might be having our waka ama out or our waka unua, and we're sailing. And we're lucky enough that they come to see us. We're not here to see them. And sometimes we don't even know that they're in the water. And they are so curious, and they just want to interact and they want to show us their tricks. They're very fast. And so it encourages us to go faster in our waka. And we'll go, ‘Oh, look at it, it's jumping up. It's trying to engage with us’. But the important thing is, not to go into their space. It's their place, if it’s their water. And let them gauge how we interact.
Andrew
Yeah, not trying to get into their space and alter that behaviour too much.
Suzi
We respect their space. And if we see that they're on the beach, well, we won’t land right where they are because they're resting. So we'll stay in the water. And the faster we go, the faster they chase us. And when we take our waka in and we put it on the ramp, we don't engage, because they are wild animals. They're not pets. So we just leave them to do their thing and they actually leave us to do our thing as well.
Andrew
Yeah. Well they are wild animals, and they’re big animals.
And Georgia-Rae, you’ve been on the water surfing and under the water diving, and have had some quite interesting experiences with pakake. Tell us about that.
Georgia-Rae
Yeah, well, my first experience with a sea lion was out here on the bar when I was paddleboarding. And it was just following along a couple metres behind me. And I just… I was pretty keen to just go to the beach and get on to the safety of land. That was fine. The first time I ever was scuba diving out in the open ocean, I had a sea lion playing with me, mouthing my head. And I was 10 metres under the water. I just had to remain calm. I was in their environment, so what could I do, really? And he was just having a bit of fun really. And then I just made my way back up to the surface and onto land when I could.
Andrew
Sounds like a pretty full-on experience. Has that put you off going back out into the water?
Georgia-Rae
No, I think they just want to play. They're just like the dogs of the sea. And if you're not threatening them, they don't feel threatened by us.
Andrew
So just remaining calm and realising they're not there to hurt you.
And speaking of kurī, you have one running around here somewhere. That's a really important thing to consider too. A lot of people with their dogs on the beach, what's the advice for dog owners around pakake?
Georgia-Rae
So keep them on a lead, and remain at a good distance away from them.
Andrew
It’s that ten metre rule isn’t it?
Georgia-Rae
Yeah.
Andrew
Ngā mihi nui ki a kōrua. Fascinating stories and more lessons learned about our interactions with these amazing animals, really, the pakake in their natural environment.
Kia ora.
Suzi/Georgia-Rae
Kia ora.
Working with pakake
Andrew
We’re at a lookout called Puketeraki Lookout. Ko Korako tēnei.
So this is interesting because there's a beach down in Karitāne there called Back Beach. But it's got another name, hasn’t it Korako?
Korako
It sure does! Ko te ikoa tūturu o tērā tātahi ko Whakawaipakake.
So the traditional name of the beach behind us is Whakawaipakake, which includes that term pakake, which refers to the sea lions. So we think, based on our mātauraka Māori, our traditional knowledge, that that beach probably was home to a large number of sea lions at some point and is still visited today by sea lions.
Andrew
Ka pai. So now Korako, you do a lot of… a variety of work related to the environment. But you've had some specific involvement with pakake. Tell us about that and some of your earlier interactions as a youngster.
Korako
Sure thing. So yeah, at this beach just behind us, Whakawaipakake, when I was… I think it was my 9th birthday. I was out having a lollop or a swim in the ocean there. And I turned around and about two or three metres from me there was a whakahao, large male sea lion, staring right back at me and it gave me a very big fright at the time. But now that I look back on that time, I realised he really wasn't too bothered by me being there.
Andrew
But it seems to have had a bit of an impact because you've gone on to do some real close up work with pakake.
Korako
Yeah, I suppose that's maybe where it began for me. So a few years ago when I was at the end of my high school I got involved in some sea lion pup tagging with the local Department of Conservation Ranger, Jim Fyfe. So he invited me out and we went and did some sea lion pup tagging, which may have been talked about in this series. But essentially, we're trying to tag sea lion pups so that we can keep an ID on them and sort of identify who they are, and who their mothers are, and what their sort of genealogy is.
So that was one of my first times getting up close and personal. I'll definitely say it was a bit nerve wracking in the beginning getting that close to these big creatures, but everything was safe and nothing happened.
Then continuing on from that, just this year, I was fortunate to be able to go to Rakiura Stewart Island and spend 10 days there out searching around the bush and the hills there for more sea lion pups and their mothers; with the purpose of trying to tag them and understand what the population is doing in Rakiura. Which is very important to our mainland population here, where those populations in Rakiura come up here and sort of strengthen the population here on the mainland and our beaches that we see in this part of the South Island.
Andrew
What does it mean to you to play a part and have a role in helping manage that species?
Korako
Increasing the amount of habitat that's available and safe for species like our pakake, it really means a lot to me. I think about earlier this year, I was doing… I was learning to do my dive certificate and I was swimming around at Aramoana with some pakake. And I sort of came to realise as I saw them moving around in the ocean and moving really gracefully and fluid in the water that I was actually in their home, they weren't in mine. And so being able to do things that make areas safe, that create habitats where they like to have their pups and feel secure, really means a lot to me. I think it's about trying to put them first and realise that they have a place here on the mainland too.
Andrew
And not just pakake. You know, we think about them obviously in the environment, but broadly speaking across the whole motu. There's lots of opportunities for everybody to play a part and contribute to the wellbeing of species in their environment isn’t there?
Korako
Yeah, absolutely.
Andrew
We need more young people doing it!
Korako
Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I suppose within the mahi that I do, you know, there's not a whole lot of people perhaps who are involved in the specific type of work I do, and that interface between sort of te ao Māori and environmental science or ecology. So, it'd be really great to see more young people getting involved in that type of mahi if that’s what interests them.
Andrew
Kia ora.
How to behave around pakake
Andrew
Hey guys, this is Mike from the New Zealand Sea Lion Trust. And we're here at Ōkāhau Warrington Spit. Another little, cool location on the coast down here. Now Mike, with the Trust a lot of your job is to get out important messages, such as how to behave around sea lions or pakake.
Mike
Definitely. Now it's all about respect really. We are in their environment, whether we're on the beach or in the water. And pakake, they are very inquisitive. When they're active and they want to engage, they will sometimes approach you. So the best thing to do is to be as boring as possible. Okay, don't do anything which is going to excite them, and then just back away slowly.
Now, if they're not active and they're just sleeping then it's just a case of just leaving them alone. Observe from a distance at least 10 metres, which is about two car lengths, and just let them do their thing.
So as I said, it's all about respect and giving them space and realising that they're not here to harm you and they don't expect you to harm them.
Andrew
So you talked about some of those behaviours, and they're inquisitive. What sorts of things could you expect to encounter if they are active? Because the ones I've seen so far have just been lazing about on the beach.
Mike
On the beach, some of the young males especially, they just want to make friends. They just want to check you out, investigate you. They will approach you. They will come towards you, generally quite slowly, but with intent, so to speak. And that is when you just back away slowly and look boring and just walk off.
Andrew
Are they dangerous?
Mike
They're dangerous to fish. They could be if you were to interact with them in the wrong way, but if you stay calm, and I've got to say it again, be boring, then you won't have any problems.
Andrew
And it's also really important when we think about vehicles and that sort of thing, like obeying signs about not driving on the beach or taking your motorbike on there and things like that.
Mike
Well, I mean, a lot of places around New Zealand don't allow vehicles on the beach, but where you can have vehicles on the beach, the best thing to do is to be very alert. I mean if you are not driving, but maybe a member of your whānau is, maybe just let them know that there could be pakake on the beach and to keep an eye out. And if you do spot one, the guideline is to stay at least 50 metres away, which is quite a distance. It's about ten car lengths.
Andrew
Right. Hey, well, awesome information. “Be boring.” I like that. If you come across pakake and they get interested in you. Thanks, Mike.
Mike
No problem.
Reclaiming mātauraka Māori of pakake
Andrew
Nau mai, haere mai ki Te Uare Taoka o Hākena. Ko Rauhina tēnei.
Welcome to the Hocken Library. And this is Rauhina.
Rauhina, this is a really interesting place here in Dunedin central. Tell us about what the Hocken Library is.
Rauhina
Kia ora Andrew. Well, the Hocken is a library, it's an archive and an art gallery. What that all means is that we bring together books, newspapers, old papers that people have written like diaries, maps, and artworks and photographs. And it's a place where all of those taoka, those special things, are kept and looked after for future generations.
Andrew
And there's a really special document here that we're going to talk about. And it’s part of some research you did on pakake a few years ago. You researched some papers done by a man called James Herries Beattie. Who was he and what did he do?
Rauhina
Well James Herries Beattie, he was known as ‘Herries’, that was his middle name. He was born in Gore in 1881. And his parents were Scottish. And from a really young age, eight-years-old, he was recording stuff, keeping diaries and recording family history, and history of the area. But what we're looking at now is a thing that he worked on in around 1920, where he went and collected all these stories and kōrero and information from Ngāi Tahu people around all of Te Waipounamu, about names, place names, stories, all sorts of things. And he listened to people and then wrote down what they had to share with him.
Andrew
These are his papers right here, which have kind of been made into a book. But in these papers was information about the sea lion.
Rauhina
Yeah, I just loved it when I found this. If you think of Herries Beattie, he was around when sea lions weren’t really seen on the coastline, the mainland coastline at least. But the people who talked to him were able to give names and give behaviours of kekeno, which are fur seals; of pakake. And he talks about these different names as well as the rāpoka, which was the sea leopard, or what we know now as the leopard seal. And it's great because he gives descriptions. He writes down the descriptions that were given to him about their behaviours, which is amazing. That now we're seeing them coming back, we can match up those behaviours with what's written down from 100 years ago.
Andrew
So this mātauraka that has been recorded, like you say, is fascinating, because it's stories about an animal that really wasn't on the mainland. How is this information helpful?
Rauhina
I think it gives us another layer of understanding about the relationship that Māori had with different species, with the pakake in the past. And kind of, we know that we've had this ongoing relationship for a really, really long time.
Andrew
And that must be helpful going forward when we… as we develop a relationship with this species again as it grows in numbers. And there's some really interesting, like you say, pūrākau stories and whakataukī. And I like this one that you were talking about before about Te Wera.
Rauhina
Oh, yeah. So this is cool. Te Wera was a fighting chief. He was a rangatira. And it was said that he didn't flinch from any weapon and he wasn't afraid of anyone, but he came across a whakahao, a big male sea lion. And he just came across this sea lion while he was walking on the beach, and he got a real big fright. So there’s a whakatauākī about him that says, ‘Ko te hoa kakari a Te Wera ko te whakahao, ‘the enemy or the fighting friend of Te Wera was the whakahao.’
I think that's a great story. He wasn't familiar with sea lions. He wasn't familiar with their behaviour and so he was afraid of them, right? But just like today, we can get a fright from sea lions if we don't understand them. But if we learn as much as we can about them, then we're able to kind of understand their behaviours and understand how to behave around them as well. And not get a fright.
Andrew
Fascinating. Thank you so much for sharing a snapshot into that work, and how it relates to what we're talking about today. Kia ora.
Rauhina
Kia ora.
<- Pakake NZ sea lions field trip videos
