Category: Hawaiian Monk Seal

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Opposition to monk seal plan voiced at meeting

Media Watch, Maui News, 17 September 2011

A federal plan to help the survival of the endangered monk seal population ran into stiff opposition Thursday night, especially from Hana fishermen and Native Hawaiians concerned the proposed regulations would hamper their ability to fish.

“Fishing is not a sport in Hana,” said 16-year-old Malia Kahuhu. “We need these fish to eat.” […]

Those speaking out said the draft regulations could lead to closed-off ocean “iceboxes” – just to accommodate the fish-eating seals they compete with for their supper.

However, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials responded that their proposals would not create closures or restrictions.

Instead, NOAA Marine Mammal Branch Chief Jeff Walters said officials are looking at relocating the seals to promote their reproduction. And, they want to create community partnerships, such as working with fishermen to find sick seals, he added. [Continues]

Source: Opposition to monk seal plan voiced at meeting, by Chris Hamilton, Maui News, 17 September 2011

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NOAA clarifies language in impact statement newsletter

Recent Publications

NOAA has released a revised newsletter for the Hawaiian Monk Seal Recovery Actions Programmatic Impact Statement (PEIS). In an accompanying explanation, NOAA states: “The revisions aim to provide clearer language about the proposed alternatives evaluated in the PEIS. Language was changed on page 2 of the newsletter to clarify what Alternatives 1, 2, and 3 would not include.”

NOAA. 2011. Hawaiian monk seal recovery actions. Programmatic environmental impact statement. NOAA Fisheries, Pacific Islands Region. August 2011, Newsletter # 2, Revision # 1: 1-6. [PDF 209 KB]

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NOAA urges participation in PEIS process

NOAA has circulated a reminder urging public participation in meetings to address questions and concerns on the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement of its Hawaiian Monk Seal Recovery Actions, and to allow formal testimony on the PEIS.

Meetings Schedule

TOWN HALL MEETINGS – Informal Question and Answer
NOAA Fisheries Service staff will provide a presentation on the status of monk seals and proposed recovery actions draft PEIS, and then be available to answer community questions and talk story about monk seal recovery.  For your convenience, at least two town hall sessions will be offered on each island. Town hall meetings have occurred on O‛ahu, Moloka‛i, Lāna‛i, and Maui. Please see schedule below for remaining town hall meetings scheduled on the Big Island and on Kaua‛i. **Please note: These are informational meetings only; we cannot take public comments for the record at these meetings.

PUBLIC HEARINGS – Formal Hearing for Public Comments
NOAA Fisheries service staff will provide a brief presentation about the draft PEIS and then receive comments for the public record.  The first 30 minutes will be an informal open-house where folks can talk story with NOAA scientists and managers involved in monk seal recovery. Continue reading “NOAA urges participation in PEIS process”

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Reflections on closed access journals

Media Watch, The Lairds of Learning, by George Monbiot, The Guardian, 29 August 2011

Editor’s Note: Despite oft-reapeated calls for monk seal conservation and science to find a wider public audience — thereby spurring efforts to save the species and its habitat — most research continues to be published in closed access “subscription-only” scientific journals with a limited circulation. In view of this issue’s importance to the survival of the Mediterranean and Hawaiian monk seal, we take this opportunity of drawing our readers’ attention to the following article, “The Lairds of Learning”.

[…] Reading a single article published by one of Elsevier’s journals will cost you $31.50(1). Springer charges Eur34.95(2), Wiley-Blackwell, $42(3). Read ten and you pay ten times. And the journals retain perpetual copyright. You want to read a letter printed in 1981? That’ll be $31.50(4).

Of course, you could go into the library (if it still exists). But they too have been hit by cosmic fees. The average cost of an annual subscription to a chemistry journal is $3,792(5). Some journals cost $10,000 a year or more to stock. The most expensive I’ve seen, Elsevier’s Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, is $20,930(6). Though academic libraries have been frantically cutting subscriptions to make ends meet, journals now consume 65% of their budgets(7), which means they have had to reduce the number of books they buy. Journal fees account for a significant component of universities’ costs, which are being passed to their students. […]

Source: The Lairds of Learning, by George Monbiot, The Guardian, 29 August 2011.

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Native to Hawaii

Media Watch, The Molokai Dispatch, 24 August 2011

The Hawaiian Monk Seals are endangered species that need to be restored because they are native, and it is out kuleana as Hawaiians to help save them. The Hawaiian Monk Seal is pre-historic and have been swimming these oceans for about 10,000,000 years. Even King Alexander LihoLiho hunted seals at Nihoa in 1857 during the time of the Hawaiian Monarchy, so that proves that the Hawaiian Monk Seals are native.

On Aug. 8 there was a Critical Habitat Meeting. At that meeting I listened to all na kupuna mana’o about the seals, some good and some bad. I heard some aunties and uncles say that the seals are no good and they eat all the fish, but we forget that the seals were here before us. [Continues]

Source: Hawaiian Monk Seals, by Danielle Mersberg, The Molokai Dispatch, 24 August 2011