Over the last decade, long-nosed fur seal numbers exploded in the Coorong lagoon, an estuary wetland on the coast of South Australia. The seals have become the center of a heated debate, causing financial and cultural upheaval for Ngarrindjeri people and fishers. Some fishers have tuned to invasive European carp to recoup their economic losses. The seals remain protected, as scientists and managers argue that they are rebounding from sealing in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and re-occupying their former ranges. Yet, others argue that the seals have never been in the Coorong before and do not belong there now. This talk examines historical sealing as rippling capitalism, with ongoing effects, importantly shaping contemporary controversies in the Coorong lagoon area that in many ways are hallmarks of the Anthropocene. Is it possible or even desirable to manage wetlands toward a pre-British colonial state? What opportunities for more-than-human co-existence might exist?