A popular well-known seal makes new appearance

A Tasmanian woman has told her office she couldn't come into work today, all because 600kg 'Neil the Seal' was blocking her car.

Transcript

00:00 A suburban street isn't normally where you'd expect to find a giant elephant seal.

00:06 Here at a property in southern Tasmania, a local celebrity known as Neil has climbed

00:10 100 metres from a nearby beach, crawling onto the front deck of a property.

00:15 He squashed the letterbox before lying next to the car in the driveway.

00:19 The resident of the property, Amber, hasn't been able to go to work because Neil is blocking

00:24 the way.

00:25 My alarm goes off at 6 o'clock as it does and I heard a noise outside and I thought

00:31 that somebody was trying to break into my car.

00:34 So I looked out the window and then next minute I've got this big seal looking up at me in

00:39 my bedroom window and I was like, "Oh, hello!"

00:40 I think it's going to go down in the books as the best excuse in history of not to go

00:45 to work.

00:46 But yes, I have sent my boss through some pictures so they know that it's not just,

00:52 you know, a fake sickie but I've actually can't get him to work.

00:57 He has been spotted at multiple beaches around southern Tasmania in recent years and all

01:02 the way up to Bishanau on Tasmania's east coast.

01:05 It's understood that elephant seals move onto land for three to four weeks as they molt

01:10 so he could be on land for a while.

01:13 Tasmanian wildlife authorities have been informed and people have been advised to stand 20 metres

01:18 away from him so he can relax and chill out in the sun.

01:21 [BLANK_AUDIO]