Some good news. A small first step that can be built on.
Sea Lions Have Returned to the New Zealand Mainland! Officials Must Implement Conservation Policies to Protect Them.
Amazing news: after approximately 200 years, sea lions haves made their way back to New Zealand’s mainland! The adorable, beloved creatures are turning up all along the coast — even, occasionally, in unexpected and goofy places like pools, outdoor furniture, and on golf courses. New Zealand sea lions are the most rare species of sea lions in the entire world. They’ve bred along the coast of New Zealand for centuries — and potentially even millennia. But humans’ insistence on hunting them down ultimately drove them away, for their own survival. Faced with extinction, the majority of this rare sea lion species moved to the nearby group of New Zealand Subantarctic Islands to breed instead. Now, thanks to heroic efforts by conservationists, many are returning to the coast and mainland!
Sadly, sea lions are still at risk. About 10,000 of this species remain, and they still face deadly hazards from fisheries, disease, and global climate change. The government needs to continue to protect key habitat areas, remove any barriers that might inhibit breeding, and make sure that the species still has strong protections from illegal hunting. We must make sure that this success story isn’t reversed, and that New Zealand keeps up the awe-inspiring work of protecting its iconic sea lions! If New Zealand’s government takes the right steps, sea lions and humans can live harmoniously. It must ensure that this threatened animal populations can continue to rebound and ultimately stabilize after the devastating lows of the past centuries. Sign the petition to encourage New Zealand officials to not allow this progress to backslide, and to further commit to habitat protection and safeguards against illegal sea lion hunting.