Visit it regularly, watch how it gets on, take photos and keep DoC informed. Have a few people on a phone tree, to contact if need arises. Then collect a strong fishing net with a good handle, a number of tin snips, garden clippers, kitchen shears, pocket knives, some leather garden gloves and boots. When the situation arises, a team of two can net a small seal and cut off the plastic noose. When the seal is in the net, hold it down securely by standing with one foot on net and the other on its head.
Boots are essential footwear.
Ring DoC afterwards and keep them informed. In their thousands, they are important organisms that filter the waters in many coastal areas. For all the importance of local shellfish in our lives, we know very little about how they live and reproduce at each of our beaches. We can start to get this information together by means of ongoing shellfish monitoring. Polluted shellfish as well as those considered safe to eat are equally important to study.