Sad end for seal that found its way onto Warrnambool farm

After swimming up the Merri River, the female Australian fur seal crawled more than a kilometre across paddocks and Coghlans Road to end up at the Warrnambool saleyards.

The confused seal was reported to Department of Sustainability and Environment wildlife officers at 9am, who noticed a growth on her right eye.

Due to her age and sickness, the seal was put down.

DSE wildlife officer Stan Williams said sickly and run-down seals often swam inland through freshwater rivers to kill parasites.

"When they start heading off inland, in a lot of cases they're looking for somewhere to die," Mr Williams said.

"It had a growth on its right eye, which seemed to be on the cornea.

"It would've found it hard to forage with one eye and it had a fairly nasty disposition. It didn't have a lot of fat reserves on it.

"It moved for short periods and then headed for a puddle and sat in that for ages, so it was obviously fairly weak.

"Because of its age and the overall situation, the opinion was that the kindest thing was to put it down."

He said it was rare to find seals so far inland, but dolphins were also known to swim through freshwater when sick.

"It's amazing how far they can travel. The cows were very interested in it.

Seals are commonly seen near Warrnambool's breakwater, resting on rocks near the jetty as they recover en route to the colony at Lady Julia Percy Island, offshore from Yambuk.

j.pech@standard.fairfax.com.au

"Surmising, it was just looking for somewhere to lay down and go to sleep."