Neil the Seal is misunderstood. Here’s why
For the past six weeks, Tasmania has been treated to a special kind of magic, Entertained, terrorised and delighted by a cheeky Seal named Neil.
But this is not his first performance. For the past five years, Neil the Seal has made twice-yearly visits.
Neil the Seal resting next to his favourite fence at a Tasmanian beachtown. Nine
This is because he’s genetically programmed to return from the sea to his birthplace.
But as the only elephant seal to be born in Tasmania in more than 200 years, his pilgrimage home is a lonely one.
There’s no herd of fellow seals waiting for him, just a community of humans doing their best to protect this 1000-kilogram troublesome teenager.
There’s definitely something about Neil.
He’d arrived unannounced, won hearts around the world with his adorable antics and oversized personality and then in the middle of the night simply disappeared.
To the great relief of his fans though he is expected back later this year to entertain all over again.
But before he took off, 60 Minutes managed a final audience with the delightful and troublesome seal named Neil.
When we met it was just after 2pm, and a dozy Neil the Seal was making an art form out of sleeping.
Newborn Neil almost drowned before the Tasmanian Department of Natural Resources and Environment rescued him. Now he’s an internet star. 60 Minutes
He’d made his bed, hard up against a fence, and he was happy to lie in it.
As it turned out, he’d barely move a whisker for the next three days.
But every twitch enthralled the ever-growing crowd that had flocked to see him.
Even asleep he was a star, with visitors gathering.
Tash Young is a Tassie local who is driven to keep Neil safe.
Neil, on the other hand, has other plans.
He’s rebellious and, at 1000 kilograms, incredibly destructive.
“He’s a menace. He really is. He loves the attention on the weekends,” Young said.
“And all the crowds come. He gets up and starts fighting poles and street signs. So he knows, he knows that he’s there for a show.”
It’s a seal show that – thanks to social media – has gone around the world.
Neil’s mother gave birth on a shallow intertidal patch of sand at a southern Tasmania beach. Nine
Incredibly, two Sundays ago close to 3000 people rocked up to a small village to see the one-tonne sleeping giant.
“They’re potentially loving him to death. They really need to give him some space,” Young said.
Songs have even been written in his honour.
Locals like Kevin Dorsett have no choice but to watch and welcome the flood of fans storming the beaches to find Neil.
“We’ve had people that have actually come from China, right, off a plane,” he said.
he Tasmanian community has rallied to protect Neil the Seal from harm, including excessive human interaction. Nine
From his earliest hours, Neil has had a special place in the heart of Tasmania.
The Department of Natural Resources and Environment got a mayday call in late 2020 to save the newborn, who could not yet swim, from drowning.
“He’s an extraordinary case in that most southern elephant seals, um, are born on the Sub-Antarctic Islands, but this is quite a rare circumstance where he was born in Tasmania,” department secretary Jason Jacobi said.
“So Tasmania is imprinted in his DNA and we love that about him.”
From his cute and cuddly period over his many visits to Tasmania, Neil now weighs a whopping tonne.
But over the next few years he’s expected to quadruple in size and grow to five metres in length, raising real concern about how to cope with this huge visitor.
Now that we’ve come to know him, it’s inconceivable to even think that Neil the Seal might have to be put down.
The job of making such an agonising decision is Jacobi’s.
“We have enough measures and plans in place that I’m very confident Neil is safe, the community is safe,” he said.
“There is no need for us to consider any other objective other than what we have always sought to achieve, which is, ‘how do we keep Neil wild?’”
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