For 27 years, from 1964 to 1991, wildlife biologist Robert Warneke was engaged in a study of the population dynamics and ecology of the Australian fur seal at Seal Rocks - a State Faunal Reserve lying off Point Grant, Phillip Island, at the entrance to Western Port Bay, Victoria. Warneke was also manager of wildlife research at the Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research, Victoria until 1991. During the summers of 1989/90 to 1992/93 Warneke assisted with research on the New Zealand sea lion at the subantarctic Auckland Islands. From 1991 to 2002 he worked as a private consultant specialising in marine mammals including other species no longer present in Bass Strait - the Long-nosed fur seal, the Australian sea lion, and the Southern elephant seal. After retirement Warneke settled in Yolla Tasmania with his wife Anne Troy, and continued to conduct personal research in to the history of whaling and sealing in Australasian and subantarctic waters.