To adapt Mick Dundee's comment "You call that a seal? This is a seal."
Having read my share of accounts of Antarctic exploration the two words "Leopard Seal" were all that was needed for me to keep my distance from this mammal. I think the photo above was at about 300m range: a 60X zoom is helpful! We moved on a little and then stopped stopped at about 200m: our presence at that range had no impact on the seal at all.
It laid there happily for the 10 minutes we observed it, occasionally displaying hyperactivity by raising a flipper.
It looked very cute especially with the black spots.
It yawned photogenically.
A crop of the above image to show the dentition. Still think its cute? - there is an ocean full of fish which would disagree with that word!
Some bird life was also interesting. I have just counted 62 Silver Gulls feeding in the washed up kelp, and there were more out of frame to the right. Including a small flock we met as we walked back, my guess about 100 in total
In addition there were 3 Australian Pied Oystercatchers in this area and we met a flock of ~20 of them flying down the beach as we got back towards the car park.
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