The Department of Conservation is investigating after a group "skinned and partially ate" a seal at Māhanga Bay in Wellington.
Māhanga Bay is owned by NIWA and has been occupied by a group of people since mid-March when the Parliament protest ended.
Images of the seal incident were reportedly posted on social media late last month by a person in a group camping there.
According to Stuff, the self-described rangatira (leader) of the group, Te Pou Raukawakawa, has admitted to gutting and skinning the animal.
“I gutted it and I skinned it,” Raukawakawa told Stuff. “I took the skin and I took the fat off the skin, and I've got it stretched out and salted, and I took the back strips out, and we ate it."
DOC’s Operations Manager for Kapiti-Wellington, Angus Hulme-Muir, says staff were informed that a seal had been drowned after getting caught in a net.
DOC met with the people who had reported the incident and were looking after the seal, which was still alive.
Hulme-Muir says they asked the group to let DOC know if the seal died so it could be buried.
He says this never happened and that DOC later found out that the seal had been skinned and partially eaten.
Killing a marine mammal and/or taking parts of the dead animal is a criminal offence and those who are found to have broken the rules face up to two years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
DOC says it’s looking into whether an offence has been committed and, if so, what the appropriate course of action to take is.
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