Category: Hawaiian Monk Seal

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A message to our readers and contributors

The Monachus GuardianSeeking a more effective model in reporting the challenges affecting conservation of the Mediterranean and Hawaiian monk seals, we have decided to cease publication of The Monachus Guardian as a biannual journal. Perhaps inevitably in this age of cutbacks, lack of funding for the Guardian also proved a contributing factor.

After 26 issues and 13 years, we take this decision with some regret, but believe that the redesigned TMG offers advantages in reporting developments as they happen, as well as allowing publication of articles or features, editorials and letters to the editor on an intermittent basis. Please consult our submissions guidelines for further details.

As a consequence of these changes, requests for submissions and announcements of publication will no longer be sent to existing subscribers by email. Readers seeking timely alerts of newly published articles or news items are encouraged to subscribe to our RSS-feed.

As always, we would look forward to hearing your views, both on The Monachus Guardian itself and monk seal conservation in general.

Needless to say, any leads on possible funding avenues that might keep TMG alive and kicking, would be gratefully received.

— William M. Johnson (Editor) | Matthias Schnellmann (Publisher)

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Desperate times, desperate measures…

Media Watch, The Huffington Post (Audry McAvoy, Associated Press), 21 May 2011
James Watt / SeaPics / Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument

Federal biologists scouring for ways to spare the critically endangered Hawaiian monk seal from extinction are embracing a desperate if unorthodox strategy: They want to pluck seal pups from the small, pristine island atolls where they’re born and move them closer to Honolulu and other highly populated areas.

Scientists say this counterintuitive step is needed to help save a species that’s declining at a rate of 4 percent annually. But it is already proving to be controversial, and even unpopular among fishermen who don’t want hungry seals eating their bait and accidentally getting caught in their nets and lines.

The National Marine Fisheries Service plans to formally propose the “translocation” of the seals in July, The Associated Press has learned. It wants to bring a few recently weaned female pups to the main Hawaiian Islands each year, keep them here until they’re three years old, and then send them back to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

“We’re desperate. That’s the bottom line. We’re watching this species just crash right in front of our eyes. This is really one of the few things that we think has a chance of making a difference,” said Jeff Walters, the agency’s Hawaiian monk seal recovery coordinator. […Continues…]

Source: Feds aim to save Hawaiian monk seal, The Huffington Post (Audry McAvoy, Associated Press), 21 May 2011

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Field camps established to determine tsunami impacts on Hawaiian monk seals

Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument News Release, 25 April 2011
Photo: Courtesy NOAA

(Honolulu, HI) NOAA Ship Oscar Elton Sette returned to port at Ford Island/Pearl Harbor on April 22, 2011 after a multi-faceted mission to Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Directed by NOAA’s Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), one of the cruise’s primary goals was to establish five field camps and deploy 14 scientists with the Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program (HMSRP). Over the course of the next three to four months the researchers will build upon 28 years of field research into the critically endangered Hawaiian monk seal. The population of Hawaiian monk seals is declining about 4% annually, driven largely by poor juvenile survival; with fewer than 1 in 5 pups surviving to become adults in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

Continue reading “Field camps established to determine tsunami impacts on Hawaiian monk seals”

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Tsunamis drag newborn monk seal away from mother

Media Watch, Honolulu Star Advertiser, 28 March 2011
Laysan albatross chick washed ashore at Midway Atoll. Courtesy: US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Tsunamis generated by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off Japan earlier this month swept up a one week-old Hawaiian monk seal pup and separated her from her mother at a remote atoll northwest of the main Hawaiian islands, but a state wildlife worker managed to reunite the pair shortly after.

The pup was crying for her mother after tsunamis hit Kure Atoll nearly 1,400 miles northwest of Honolulu on March 11, said the atoll’s field camp supervisor Cynthia Vanderlip, a biologist with the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources. But the mother was asleep about 150 feet away and didn’t hear her pup’s cries.

Vanderlip waited a while, then carried the tiny seal to her mother.

“The mom — she growled at me for that. She wasn’t very grateful. But they immediately nuzzled,” Vanderlip told reporters Monday. […]

Full Story: Honolulu Star Advertiser / Associated Press.

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Help the Guardian stay online

Support monk seal conservation. Help us stay on line. The Monachus Guardian is the only dedicated source of news and information on the world’s endangered monk seals. Its publication fulfils explicit recommendations of international conservation action plans for the species.

Since its first issue in May 1998, it has carried reports, news and opinion from over 200 contributors in 30+ countries, including 150 feature or scientific articles and over 1,000 news items. Its authors have ranged from Mediterranean fishermen to UN diplomats, government ministers to marine park managers, ecological historians to veterinarians.

If you read or make use of The Monachus Guardian, and support its objectives to bring monk seal conservation to an international readership, please consider making a financial contribution securely via PayPal to keep the journal and website online.

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Thank you.