Category: Hawaiian Monk Seal

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Japan tsunami debris threatens Hawaiian monk seal

Media Watch, The Mainichi Daily News, 16 November 2011

Hawaii’s environment could be in danger as debris from Japan’s earthquake and tsunami in March, including lumber and home appliances adrift in the Pacific, has been approaching, researchers said at a meeting in Honolulu on Monday.

“The larger the piece, the more dangerous the piece,” said Nikolai Maximenko of the International Pacific Research Center at the meeting on mitigating the impact of the debris on coastlines.

Large debris could damage reefs and shore-side facilities, while small debris could pollute beaches and injure endangered species such as the Hawaiian monk seal, said speakers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and marine cleanup groups. […]

Source: Scientists warn Japan tsunami debris endangering Hawaii, The Mainichi Daily News, 16 November 2011

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NOAA reopens public comment on Critical Habitat

NOAA, Announcement, 7 November 2011

Proposed rule to revise Hawaiian monk seal Critical Habitat — Public comment period reopened

On June 2, 2011 NOAA Fisheries published a proposed rule to revise Hawaiian monk seal critical habitat. The public comment period was open for 90-days, until August 31, 2011. In response to public concerns and comments, NOAA Fisheries has decided to reopen the public comment period for the proposed rule to revise critical habitat for the Hawaiian monk seal. The public comment period will be reopened from November 7, 2011 for 60-days and will close on January 6, 2012.

Source: NOAA Fisheries

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KP2 returns to Hawaii

Media Watch, San Jose Mercury News, 1 November 2011
Coast Guard C-130 Hercules aircraft crew members, from Air Station Sacramento, along with biologists and veterinarians from the University of California Santa Cruz load a monk seal into a C-130 aircraft, Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials, Coast Guard representatives and UCSC marine life specialists coordinated the seal transfer to the Waikiki Aquarium in Hawaii. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Seaman David Flores.

A Hawaiian monk seal taken from Molokai after he was found to be nearly blind and interacting roughly with people returned to the islands Tuesday.

KP2 arrived on a Coast Guard flight from California, where he has spent the past two years at a university research lab. Scientists there were examining his eyes and studying his eating habits for research on monk seal metabolism.

The 205-pound seal, which was born on Kauai and briefly lived on Molokai, where he became famous for playing with people at Kaunakakai, will be under quarantine at the Waikiki Aquarium for four to six weeks.

He’ll then move to his new home in the aquarium’s monk seal pool where he will join one more seal on public display. [Continues]

Source: Hawaiian monk seal returns to islands from Calif., Audry McAvoy, Associated Press, San Jose Mercury News, 1 November 2011.

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Cute with consequences

Media Watch, Cute with Consequences, Honolulu Weekly, 28 September 2011

On the brink of extinction, monk seals are seen as a threat by Isle fishers

[…] Since the early 1990s, when sightings of the rare creatures became a regular appearance throughout the inhabited Hawaiian Islands, tourists have flocked to take their pictures. Monk seal images now adorn magazines, postcards, T-shirts and caps. Diligent volunteers erect barrier ropes around sun-bathing seals, track their movements and guard their pups.

Still, not everyone has warm, fuzzy feelings toward the state’s official mammal. In meetings held recently around the state, commercial, recreational and subsistence fishers and other ocean users made it clear they’re running short of aloha for the rapidly dwindling species, primarily because they’re worried about how federal plans to save it may impact them.

“When people get upset over here, they’re gonna kill ‘em, and that’s a fact, bottom line,” testified Kauai resident Kalani Kapuniai at a Sept. 17 hearing on a draft programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) that calls for temporarily moving young seals from the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) to undisclosed sites in the main Islands. Two monk seals were shot on Kauai in 2009, “and we were told that there were others that were never reported,” said Carl Berg, a member of Surfrider Foundation’s Kauai chapter. [Continues]

Source: Cute with Consequences, Joan Conrow, Honolulu Weekly, Cover Story, 28 September 2011

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Recovering a species

Media Watch, The Molokai Dispatch, 19th September 2011

Actions proposed to assist monk seal survival

[…] In a hearing about the PEIS held on Molokai last Thursday, community members and fishermen offered their opinion on the proposals. Many expressed concerns about the large amount of fish Hawaiian monk seals eat – fish that they say could be going to feed their families. […]

More than 50 residents attended the hearing, and many testified before NMFS representatives and monk seal researchers. Many offered first-hand experience in encountering seals while fishing. Others were frustrated with the lack of local and cultural representation within the NMFS and in the PEIS document. […]

One of the [alternative] proposals considered by NMFS officials was the development of a facility in the NWHI for the seals, protected from the dangers that threaten their survival. [NOAA Hawaiian monk seal recovery coordinator Jeff] Walters said this proposal was dismissed because of prohibitive costs and logistical challenges. [Resident and Molokai Planning Commissioner Lori] Buchanan said she thinks that alternative should still be considered, as no mention was made of what it would actually cost to carry out this option. [Continues]

Source: Recovering a species, Catherine Cluett, The Molokai Dispatch, 19th September 2011