Seals, Tsunamis,and Silly Sausage Stuff.
Seals:
A small fur seal was washed up dead on Waikawau Bay at the south end about a week ago. It did not appear to have been harmed in any way.
A few days later Alan Campbell took Austin and Nikita and Ngaere out in the boat in the hope of locating the other live one he had seen the previous day, while fishing.
It was spotted basking on the rocks in an isolated spot around from Little Bay.
Up until the 1500’s seals were plentiful along our coastlines and it would seem there were large breeding colonies on the off shore islands in our area. Maori pretty much wiped them out in their hunt for food by this time and the skins were prized for warm cloaks. There have been occaisional sitings occuring over the past ten years and it maybe that they are returning to the old homelands.

Tsunamis:
A real threat or just another piece of paranoia?
Recently I spent half a day with Professor John Ogden, professor of Ecology at Auckland University, on Great Barrier Island. We were looking at wetlands and marsh bird species. He took me to a large sand dune beach on the eastern coast at the northern end of the island for a look at the end of the visit.
In some large bare dunes, some 20m above sea level, the dunes were littered with thousands of rounded stones.
These had been tossed up in a tsunami back in the 1500 or 1600’s.
A puzzle on our very own Waikawau Bay was solved. In the back dunes, about 10m above sea level the ground is littered with a similar spread of stones
John says there is local evidence to suggest there have been at least two tsunamis in the past 600 years or so.

Silly Sausage Stuff
In the recent campaign against the pest proof fence and MEG, there has been a constant nag in the media from their spokesperson, that I am making $65/hr and the proof is in the Barns Report( the cost analysis document to identify what the pest control options might cost).
God! I wish!
Yes, in Appendix 6 at the back of the report it states quite clearly $65/hour for a total of $81,120 in the MEG “costs for a typical year”, as part of identifying a realistic assessment cost for all parts of MEG’s projects.
What is not mentioned is that the  position was for a NZ Landcare Trust Coordinator (these are 2003/04 figures). No attempt has been made to clarify how these figures were arrived at.
They came from the CEO of NZLCT, and represent the realistic, true and ‘in-kind’ costs to NZLCT of setting up the coordinator’s position and maintaining it.
It includes CEO wages,accountants fees, a PA support rate, an IT technician rate. Also the setting up of an office ,computer, printer, stationery, general running costs, including phone, and travel expenses, and training. At the time this figure was quoted it was also being applied to three other similar postions in other parts of the country where coordinators were being employed to promote conservation in working landscapes.
This figure was ,as I understand it, quite acceptible to major funding bodies, from whom funding was sought to support the positions.
I sincerely hope this has adequately answered the doubters, because this is seriously silly stuff.
At the time of the Barns Report I was earning gross around $16.25/hour.
And let that be the end of that, please. I do not wish to discuss this in public further, but anyone is more than welcome to give me a call on 07 866 6928 or come and see me in person at Karuna Falls.
The mind boggles with what I could do with $65/hour……
Think of all the bars of dreadfully dark chocolate I could buy with that sort of money!!!