'Never get between it and the water': Beachgoers warned to stay clear of leopard seal

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A 3.5-metre leopard seal has come ashore in northern NSW as authorities warn eager onlookers to keep their distance from the potentially-fatal marine mammal.

In 2003 23-year-old British researcher, Kristy Brown, was fatally attacked by a leopard seal while snorkelling with colleagues in Antarctica.However other people have been attacked when they came too close.Alstonville environmental scientist, Gordon Fraser, was working as a Parks Ranger in Victoria on Phillip Island's Seal Rocks when he was bitten by a leopard seal when trying to free a seal from fishing gear.

"The standard method was that one person would get in front of the animal to distract it and the other would go behind and lift the flippers up," he said.On this occasion, Mr Fraser's colleague said"clear" and a split second later said"no, not clear" but the seal had already swung around and bitten Mr Fraser's hand."I had stitches inside and outside and got toxoplasmosis and my hand blew up like a basketball.

Ms O'Neill said in the past five years the number of leopard seal sightings in subtropical waters had increased. "We've probably had 5–10 leopard seals around the same area and there have actually been leopard seals sighted as far north as Queensland in the past," she said."A lot of the time they'll be on remote beaches and you won't hear about it."

 

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'Leopard seals head north to feed Leopard seals are commonly found in Antarctic waters, however the NSW far-north coast, long a magnet to tourists for its beautiful beaches, seems to be growing in popularity with the seldom-seen marine mammal.'

Aww, that was a real downer of an ending. Poor thing.

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