Press Watch — Environment News Service, June 11, 2009
A Hawaiian monk seal pulls out of the ocean and flops down at one end of Sandy Beach, on Oahu’s southeast shore, far from the surfers at the other end. […]
The half-ton marine mammal is one of only about 1,200 individuals still alive today. But new habitat protections that the federal government will declare Friday could bring endangered Hawaiian monk seals back from the brink.
NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service will designate critical habitat for endangered Hawaiian monk seals in the main Hawaiian Islands and expand criticial habitat that already exists in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
The designation, to be published in Friday’s Federal Register, comes in response to a petition filed by three nonprofit organizations – the Center for Biological Diversity, KAHEA: The Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance, and Ocean Conservancy. […]
According to the government’s finding, protection of beach habitat that supports resting, birthing, and raising pups and marine habitat for foraging is essential for the conservation of the monk seals. […]