Category: Hawaiian Monk Seal

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This Baby Seal Is a People Person, And That Makes Him Dangerous

Press Watch, The Wall Street Journal, September 15, 2009

Hawaii’s KP2 Made His Name Loving Humans, But His Ardor Is Getting Growing Pup Deported

KAUNAKAKAI, Hawaii — For months now, a baby monk seal named KP2 has been the biggest celebrity on the island of Molokai.

Since the animal arrived at Kaunakakai Wharf in February, several children from the island have made a habit of swimming with him. Area paddlers and boogie boarders have shared laughs watching him climb into or onto their boats and boards. One resident was so comfortable with KP2 that he put his golden retriever in the water with the seal and documented it in a YouTube video. […]

But now that KP2 calls Molokai home, he is likely to be sent away any day now. That’s because the 17-month-old pup is maturing. His weight, now 175 pounds, has more than doubled since spring, and he has begun playfully grabbing swimmers from behind with his flippers.

Seal experts worry that KP2 risks loving people to death. “We’ve had experiences before where a 300-pound animal is just looking to play and then starts holding people underwater for too long. And with how much KP2 likes being around people, we think he’s bound to get to that point,” says Wende Goo, a spokesperson for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. […]

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Trial set in death of monk seal

Press Watch, Honolulu Advertiser,  August 12, 2009

78-year-old man pleads not guilty in the fatal shooting on Kauai beach

A 78-year-old man accused of shooting to death an endangered Hawaiian monk seal on Kaua’i in May pleaded not guilty to the charge yesterday in U.S. District Court.

Charles Vidinha of Kaua’i was released on a $10,000 unsecured bond after entering his plea before U.S. Magistrate Judge Leslie Kobayashi. Vidinha’s trial was set for Oct. 14. […]

Vidinha is charged with shooting a pregnant monk seal May 21 at Pila’a Beach, a remote beach on Kaua’i’s north shore. The seal, known as RK-06, was the mother of five pups, federal officials said.

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Man indicted in shooting death of monk seal

News Watch, Honolulu Advertiser, August 5, 2009

A 78-year-old Kaua’i man was indicted today on a charge that he violated the U.S. Endangered Species Act in connection with the May 21 shooting death of a Hawaiian monk seal on the island’s north shore.

Charles Vidinha is expected to appear in federal court in Honolulu at 3 p.m. Tuesday for an arraignment on the charge.

Vidinha was indicted by a federal grand jury in Honolulu today.

If convicted, Vidinha faces maximum penalties of one year imprisonment and a fine of $50,000.

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From pristine reefs to coral wastelands

News Watch, Honolulu Advertiser, July 26, 2009

The scientific projections are ominous.

If substantial steps aren’t taken globally to counter the effects of climate change, reefs in Hawai’i and around the world eventually could become coral wastelands, decimated by increasingly acidic and warming ocean waters.

Some scientists say such a scenario, which would wreak havoc with Hawai’i’s fisheries and the state economy, could come by the end of the century, perhaps even a few decades sooner. […]

One wild card is whether corals, resilient organisms that can rebound from some major stresses, will be able to adapt to climate change-related chemical alterations in the environment that are occurring at rates not seen for millions of years.

Scientists also are uncertain whether the predicted effects will happen as quickly or as severely as the models indicate.

“The thing to worry about is not that it will be as bad as we think,” said Paul Jokiel, researcher at the Hawai’i Institute of Marine Biology. “It’s that it will be much worse than we think.”

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Papahānaumokuākea publishes draft science plan

The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands’ Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument has published a draft Natural Resources Science Plan, outlining a range of proposed research programmes aimed at promoting the conservation and recovery of both habitat and specially protected species. Among those species is the critically-endangered Hawaiian monk seal.

“In light of the ever-worsening crisis for the Hawaiian monk seal population,” states the draft report, “a great deal of management-driven research will be conducted to reverse this trend. The Recovery Plan for the Hawaiian Monk Seal (NMFS 2007) lists 11 short-term management actions, many of which will benefit from additional research. These actions include investigating factors affecting food limitation, researching methods to reduce shark predation on monk seals, researching methods to minimize exposure and spread of infectious disease, and investigating and developing response to biotoxin impacts, among others.”

The report can be downloaded at: http://papahanaumokuakea.gov/research

The report is open to public review and comment. written comments should be received on
or before August 10th, 2009, states the PMNM administration, while two public meetings will also be held (see http://papahanaumokuakea.gov for further details).

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Laid-off DLNR worker files suit

Press Watch, Honolulu Advertiser, July 9, 2009

A policy specialist who was laid off from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources last month maintains he was illegally fired because he repeatedly raised concerns about the agency not complying with the same environmental law that sank Hawaii Superferry.

David Weingartner says, in a whistleblower lawsuit filed yesterday, that the department’s Division of Aquatic Resources failed to comply with the Hawai’i Environmental Policy Act as it approved nearly 100 permits since December 2006 for research and other work in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. […]

The approved permits for the marine sanctuary covered a wide range of proposed activities, including the use of so-called bang sticks, a type of firearm, to kill Galapagos sharks preying on monk seal pups, according to Marti Townsend of Kahea, an environmental group that has raised concerns about the lack of state environmental reviews for monument work. […]

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