The trouble with sealions
Anastasia
Phil May and Andrea Twigg
Fri 17 Feb 2012 17:20
|
On our first morning in port, when I got up
and went outside, there was a small sealion sitting on the steps on one
hull. They look quite cute when they look up at you with their big black
eyes. I just spoke gently to it, asking whether it should really be using
our steps as a sunbathing platform. It thought about it for a moment,
looked a bit embarrassed and swam off.
That one obviously went and told its mates
that the guy on Anastasia wouldn't say boo to a goose, because the next night
they all sneaked over when we were in bed, climbed the steps and spread
themselves out in the cockpit. They are the filthiest animals I have ever
encountered and they made a horrible mess, smearing fishy poo and sealion hairs
everywhere. There must have been a dozen of them, because the steps up
both hulls were plastered. It is rich in fish oil, so it doesn't just
rinse off when you spray it, especially when it has dried on. It took
me an hour of spraying and scrubbing to clean up.
During the day we went on a boat trip and so we
tied a network of ropes over the starboard hull to see if that would deter
them. Not at all, all we had done was prepare a comfortable sealion
hammock for them. To make matters worse, in the evening, when we got back
from the restaurant in the dark, I was faced with jumping off the water
taxi into a tangle of ropes and sealions. Sealions get quite cross when
they think you are going to jump on them. I was lucky not to get
bitten.
So, last night we strapped some chairs onto the
bottom of the steps to make a more solid-looking barrier. So far that has
deterred most of them. There was just one small one huddled up
behind a chair. It did not fit well on the bottom step, but it was
determined to stay crammed in there. It looked quite cute (see photo)
until I tried to shoo it off, at which point it transformed into the evil
snarling beast that lurks within every sealion, growling and biting at the broom
handle as I encouraged it to leave.
Some boats in the harbour have barbed wire around
them, some of the bigger boats just put up with piles of sealions (and sealion
poo) on the deck. The smaller boats have to be careful because
there is actually one in the harbour at the moment that broke apart under the
weight of all the sealions on its deck. |
