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Story: Marine conservation

Sealers, Campbell Island

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Sealers, Campbell Island

Three sealers, Dick Norton (left), Harry Norton and an unidentified man who is holding a club, are pictured with clubbed seals on Campbell Island around 1914 or 1915. Seals were not usually shot, and the method of slaughter was barbaric: to save ammunition they were clubbed over the head while they lay sleeping or resting on the rocks. At the time, seals already had some legal protection and hunting was only allowed by licence in the wintertime.

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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

Gerard Hutching and Carl Walrond, Marine conservation – Marine mammals, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/5805/sealers-campbell-island (accessed 25 June 2026).

Story by Gerard Hutching and Carl Walrond, published 2 March 2009, updated 1 September 2015.