Seal domestic encounter finally by a whisker (9)

I believe the answer is:

crabeater

'seal' is the definition.
(crabeater seal is a kind of seal)

'domestic encounter finally by a whisker' is the wordplay.
'finally' says to take the final letters.
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'whisker' becomes 'beater'.
The final letters of 'domestic encounter' are 'cr'.
'cr'+'a'+'beater'='CRABEATER'

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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