Feds investigate death of monk seal on Kauai

Press Watch –  The Honolulu Advertiser, May 22, 2009

Witnesses report hearing apparent gunshots, seeing mammal wash up on shore

Federal authorities are investigating the death of an endangered Hawaiian monk seal that witnesses said they believed was shot as it lounged on a beach on the North Shore of Kaua’i yesterday.

The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service confirmed last night that it retrieved the carcass of a monk seal yesterday. But spokeswoman Wende Goo said the cause of death won’t be determined until a necropsy is performed.

Goo said the dead seal was a female, but declined further comment.

This is the second monk seal found dead on a Kaua’i beach in the past month. On April 19, a 4-year-old male seal was discovered dead, and Goo said that case remains under investigation. […]

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