Seal Bay Conservation Park, Conservation park on the south coast of Kangaroo Island, South Australia
Seal Bay Conservation Park is a protected area on the south coast of Kangaroo Island, South Australia, about 50 kilometres south of Kingscote. It includes several parcels of land bounded by the South Coast Road, West Bay Road and the coastline, plus Nobby Islet. A road called Seal Bay Road leads to visitor facilities at Bales Beach and to a viewpoint over Seal Bay.
In the 1950s, researchers noted that Australian sea lion numbers had dropped sharply and pushed for protection of this stretch of coast. The site was formally designated as a conservation park, and access to the beach has been managed ever since.
The name Seal Bay comes from the Australian sea lions that haul out on the beach; the colony is the third largest in Australia. Guided tours began in 1955, started by a Kangaroo Island resident, and remain the only way onto the sand. Visitors walk with a ranger among resting animals, and the park recorded 121,819 visitors in 2018-19.
The beach can only be visited with a ranger-led tour, which runs at intervals throughout the day. Sturdy shoes are a good idea, as the path crosses soft sand and uneven ground before reaching the animals.
The Australian sea lion is one of the rarest sea lion species in the world and is found almost nowhere outside southern Australian waters. The colony here is one of the very few places where these animals can be watched at close range without any barrier between the visitor and the wildlife.
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