Sprig & Fern The Meadows got the seal of approval on Sunday when a baby fur seal chose to galumph through the door, much to the surprise of patrons enjoying a quiet beer.
Co-owner Bella Evans joked it must have been the lure of the salmon pizza cooking in the oven and both staff and local patrons watched in disbelief as it came in through the open door and headed through the pub.
“Still in disbelief,” she says. “Everyone thought they were dreaming. It was the most bizarre thing.”
She says that everyone came together to work out what to do with it.
“Someone went home and got their dog crate, someone else was on the phone with DOC (Department of Conservation) and everyone was trying to figure out what to do with the seal. It was really adorable, but we had to be quite careful because it was quite frightened.”
After a quick tour of the pub, the young seal took refuge under the glass cleaner where the rescue crew were then able to entice it into the covered dog crate with some raw salmon.
“We tried to make it as desirable as possible!”
Bella says DOC staff had been trying to locate the seal after several calls from the public and though it technically wasn’t quite a “goose chase”, it was a successful outcome, with the youngster released back to the wild and a long way from the temptation of the local pub.
“We were all making jokes because we had salmon pizza cooking, so everyone thought it came in after that.”
Bella and her three other co-workers, including fiancé Daniel Johnsen, bought the business a couple of months ago and she says the last thing they expected was serving up salmon to a seal pup.
DOC principal ranger for biodiversity, Helen Otley, says the seal pup was released at Rabbit Island as it is a safe location due to its dog-free status.
She says it is not unusual to see young fur seals onshore in Tasman Bay area at this time of the year as they are exploring their environment after weaning. Seals can wander up to 15km inland, often following rivers and streams.
The escapade was captured on the tavern’s video surveillance and can be watched on its Facebook page.
