Sea elephant to stay free

Press, 14 September 1976, Page 3

Sea elephant to stay free

Parliamentary reporter Jumbo, the four-ton sea elephant which came ashore at Riversdale, on the Wairarapa coast, now has Government protection. When permission was sought from the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries (Mr Maclntyre) to take the giant mammal to Marineland, at Orewa, the request was refused. Mr Maclntyre said that the main ground for the refusal was that it was a free and indigenous wild animal, and should be allowed to remain so. Other grounds for the refusal, it is believed, covered the difficulty of removing the huge ' creature, whose health is uncertain. The removal would have had to be by road, probably by articulated truck, after subduing the sea elephant by rifle-adminis-tered sedatives. The 500mile Journey from Riversdale, 32 miles east of Masterton. to Orewa, north of

Auckland, would have entailed some risk.

A spokesman from the Minister’s office said he understood the animal would be lured out to sea with fish.

On Saturday afternoon two men, using fish on the end of a stick, managed to entice Jumbo from his resting place on the footpath of Pacific Parade back down to the beach and into the water. But the giant promptly moved back on to the sand dunes, where he has remained since.

Seals and sea-lions are quite well known on the Wellington coastline, and there is a strong feeling of sympathy which tends to discourage would-be molesters. A few years ago, when another sea-elephant, nicknamed Blossom, developed a habit of visiting beaches around Wellington, a voluntary guard was set up to look after its welfare until it chose to put to sea again.