Children of Rukua, Beqa were startled to find a mystery mammal trying to scale the village seawall yesterday.
They had never seen anything like it. And when the adults were informed of the unusual sighting, they found a “seal” like creature resting on some rocks.
The stunned villagers are still wondering how the creature ended up on their shores, thousands of miles away from the mammal’s usual haunts.
Villager Marika Mocelutu said at 11.30am the “seal” swam in from Vaga Bay and tried to climb up the seawall,” he said.
“There were children playing near the seawall and when they saw it there was a big commotion.
“So the ‘seal’ swam off. “I think it was more afraid of the children than the children were of it. It wasn’t aggressive in any way.”
Another villager, Navitalai Durusolo, said they first thought it was a shark and after looking at the nose and tail they determined it was a seal.
The seal left the seawall and swam out to some rocks where it appeared to be resting.
“It went to lie on some rocks and when we got near it looked like it was sleeping.”
In response to questions from The Fiji Times, the Biosecurity Authority of Fiji said they had received reports of the sighting and investigations into how the mammal turned up in Beqa waters were in progress.
