News
Australian Sea Lion Defence Campaign Reaches Milestone with Launch of Pup Shelter Project
Tuesday, 16 Dec, 2025
In an exciting milestone for our newest campaign to protect the Endangered Australian sea lion - our crew, led by campaign leader, Dirk Holman, have just completed installing the very first pup shelters in the Great Australian Bight. This is part of a pilot project funded by the Australian Sea Lion Recovery Foundation.
Australian Sea Lions are Australia’s only endemic seal species - and the only Australian endangered marine animal still in decline.
Two of the biggest threats young sea lions face are heat stress and conspecific trauma which cause pup mortalities. A loss of habitat, which would normally provide natural shade and shelter, along with longer, hotter heatwaves are putting vulnerable pups at risk.
After months of research, design and planning, our crew headed out in our patrol vessel, the Southern Defender to some of the remote islands in the Great Australian Bight to install the very first pup shelters - and we’re thrilled to share that pups are already using them!
This is a powerful step towards giving this species a fighting chance, and it is only the beginning.
It's such a relief to finally get to this point where we are putting shelters out in ASL breeding colonies across the state. It's been a long and convoluted process, but we now have a set of structures that we have been able to deploy with confidence.
Dirk Holman, Australian Sea Lion Defence Campaign Lead
The shelters have a design which is both robust enough to withstand the elements and light enough to transport in a boat and get ashore on offshore islands. They are also made of materials which won't degrade and damage the environment.
Initial testing from temperature loggers on the inside and outside of the structures has shown that they provide significant temperature relief, which was the first aim. They also appear to have been quickly adopted by sea lion pups.
We have telemetry enabled cameras to monitor occupancy as well as behaviour around each shelter. The imagery from these cameras has shown pups spending significant amounts of time inside the shelter, which is a great result, considering we have put them out prior to the start of breeding season.
Dirk Holman
We expect increased usage as breeding gets underway. Follow us on social media and subsribe to our mailing list to stay up to date on developments with this exciting new campaign.