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Story: Human effects on the environment

Sealing

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Sealing

Both Māori and European settlers devastated the seal population around the New Zealand coastline. Huge numbers of seals were killed between 1792 and 1830 from Fiordland and the subantarctic islands. These men have clubbed a number of seals to death on Campbell Island, about 1913.

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Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: 1/2-100388; G

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Janet Wilmshurst, Human effects on the environment – Impact on animals, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/12550/sealing (accessed 10 June 2026).

Story by Janet Wilmshurst, published 2 March 2009.