Hawaiian Monk Seal News - Monachus Guardian 4 (2): November 2001

Pups on target

The U.S. Navy announced on 22 June that it had measured and tagged the first Hawaiian monk seal pup known to have been born on Kahoolawe, a former bombing target island situated off Maui in the main Hawaiian Islands. The operation was conducted in association with the National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS) and Parsons-UXB, the corporation contracted by the Navy to clear Kahoolawe of military debris and unexploded ordnance. With more than 300 people a day being airlifted to the island to work on the cleanup operation, Parsons-UXB made a point of telling its work crews to stay clear of the pup. A 200-metre radius exclusion zone was also established around the animal.

Then, on 25 July, a pregnant female again gave birth at the popular resort of Poipu Beach on Kauai’s southern shore, apparently oblivious to holiday crowds. According to NMFS officials and volunteers of the Kauai Monk Seal Program, it was the second time in as many years that the seal had given birth and nursed her pup on Poipu’s white sands [see Rare birth on Kauai, TMG 3(2) November 2000].

According to conventional wisdom, Monachus schauinslandi was extirpated from the Main Hawaiian Islands some 2000 years ago, following the arrival of the first human settlers. That effectively left the species clinging to survival among the remote atolls and sand banks of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) chain. Recent births and other sightings closer to home, however, are leading to a reassessment of those historical assumptions. The U.S. Marine Mammal Commission, in its 2000 Annual Report to Congress [Monachus Library] notes that, although “the development of monk seal colonies in the main islands is not without risks...” recolonisation “...could significantly improve prospects for long-term conservation of the species by establishing a larger, more widespread metapopulation.”

NMFS is currently conducting aerial surveys over the Main Hawaiian Islands, hoping to gain a clearer impression of monk seal population numbers. Educated guesses – albeit a risky pursuit where population assessments are concerned – suggest that as many as 70 monk seals may live around the ‘downtown islands’ [see Monk Seals in the Main Hawaiian Islands, TMG 3(1): May 2000].

So far this year, 7 monk seal births have been recorded around the Main Hawaiian Islands: 3 on Kauai, 2 on Molokai, 1 on Hawaii, and 1 on Kahoolawe. The latter two, reports Jason Baker of NMFS’ Protected Species Investigation, are the first documented births on the Big Island and Kahoolawe.

Sources:
NMFS; Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 28 June 2001; Endangered seal chooses Hawaiian beach to give birth – again, Agence France Presse English, July 25 2001.

Under review

The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve, established by outgoing President Bill Clinton [see “Living rainbow” may benefit monk seals, TMG 4(1): May 2001] may be in trouble. Following the stated policy of the Bush administration of routinely reviewing every Executive Order issued by the former President during his last months in Office, the establishment of the Reserve is now coming under the scrutiny of the U.S. Secretary of Commerce.

While there are no clouds hanging over the survival of the Reserve, supporters have recently mounted a vigorous campaign to prevent any abrogation or dilution of its protection measures.

The Reserve, which incorporates most of the remote Leeward chain of atolls, shoals and reefs curving into the Pacific northwest from the main inhabited Hawaiian islands, is the world’s second largest marine protected area after Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. It is said to incorporate 70 per cent of U.S. coral reefs. Aside from constituting the primary habitat of the Hawaiian monk seal, the Reserve also provides refuge for marine turtles and migratory sea birds.

President Clinton’s move to create the Reserve complemented action by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1909 when he established a National Wildlife Refuge in the area.

Following representations by fisheries interests, however, which have remained highly vocal in their opposition to restrictions in the area, the Bush administration is said to be reconsidering the Reserve’s governing regulations. This is in spite of the fact that commercial and recreational fishing is permitted to continue at pre-designation levels throughout most of the Reserve. Because of the area’s remoteness and rough seas, commercial fishing activity consists of just ten demersal fishing boats. A segment of the bottomfish fishery, however, has been found in breach of the U.S. Endangered Species Act. In a 2000 district court judgement, it was blamed for hooking monk seals, feeding seals unwanted fish containing ciguatera toxin, and even bludgeoning seals. As a result of the same court judgement, a commercial lobster fishery operating in the NWHI was closed after evidence was presented implicating it in the death by starvation of monk seal pups at the plummeting Monachus schauinslandi colony at French Frigate Shoals [see Judge issues ruling in “monk seal starvation” case, TMG 4 (1): May 2001].

Despite these findings, fisheries interests are now pressuring President Bush and Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans to downgrade restrictions, and allow an expanded fishing effort utilising gear currently prohibited because of its injurious ecological impact.

Source:

Actionnetwork.org. August 2001. Ocean action: Help protect the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reefs. American Oceans Campaign.

Marine Mammal Commission forecasts continuing decline

The Marine Mammal Commission’s Annual Report to Congress appeared later than usual this year, preventing us from covering the 2000 edition in our May issue. Thanks to the MMC, however, a PDF version of the Hawaiian monk seal chapter has been added to the Monachus Library [see reference below]. It is recommended reading for anyone who wants to learn more about population trends and abundance on each of the occupied Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI), on perceived natural and human threats to the species, on management and political developments, and on the species’ natural recolonisation of the Main Hawaiian Islands.

Interpreting survey results from these population centres, the report concludes that: “The most obvious overall trend over the past four decades is one of declining beach counts. Although the counts indicate that the decline was halted in the 1990s, poor pup and juvenile survival remains a serious problem impeding population recovery. This poor survival has effectively created an aging population. That is, the proportion of adults in the population has grown over recent years, while the proportion of juveniles and subadults has declined. As a consequence, pup production has remained relatively high, but recruitment of breeding animals into the population has decreased. Because of this shift, pup production may decrease in the near future as productive adult females are lost to the population through aging and mortality and are not replaced by maturing females. This pattern was observed at Kure Atoll, where pup production declined from about 30 pups per year in the early 1960s to a single pup in 1986. The same pattern appears to be occurring at French Frigate Shoals, where recruitment has been poor for a decade and pup production is expected to drop considerably in the near future. Because of the numerical importance of the French Frigate Shoals colony, these changes will strongly influence the dynamics of the whole population” [see Judge issues ruling in “monk seal starvation” case, TMG 4 (1): May 2001]. The MMC report notes, however, that positive growth is occurring in some populations, such as Pearl and Hermes Reef, Midway Atoll and Laysan Island.

Marine Mammal Commission. 2001. Hawaiian monk seal (Monachus schauinslandi). Pages 54-70 in Chapter III, Species of Special Concern, Annual Report to Congress, 2000. Marine Mammal Commission, Bethesda, Maryland. [Available in the Monachus Library].