Officials investigate seal death
Media Watch, Officials probe fourth Hawaiian monk seal death, Hawaii News Now
HONOLULU (AP) – Federal and state officials are investigating the fourth suspicious death of a Hawaiian monk seal in six months after a male seal was found dead in northeastern Kauai. […]
Source: Officials probe fourth Hawaiian monk seal death, Hawaii News Now, 25 April 2012.
New monk seal killing alarms Hawaii
Media Watch, Reward offered in death of Monk Seal, KITV
KAUAI – The Department of Land and Natural Resources is investigating the death of a 3-year-old male monk seal, who was found dead on Sunday.
DLNR chair William Aila said the seal was found on a Northeast Kaua’i beach in an area were seals have been harmed before. […]
DLNR officials say this is the fifth monk seal death under investigation.
Since November, three seals were found dead on Molokai and two have been found dead on Kaua’i.
The reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the monk seal deaths is now up to $40,000.
The anonymous and reward tip line is 1-855-DLNR-TIP.
Source: Reward offered in death of Monk Seal, KITV, 25 April 2012
Some say monk seal protection law may have backfired
Media Watch, KITV,25 January 2012
The suspicious death of four Hawaiian monk seals has triggered numerous calls into a tipline hoping to lead investigators to who may be responsible. […]
Special Report: Fight for Survival
Media Watch, Honolulu Star Advertiser, 15 January 2012
[…] The current theory is that the ancient ancestors of today’s Hawaiian monk seals began exploring from their original home in the Caribbean 3 million years ago through what is now Central America during a time of global climate change, said Charles Littnan, program leader for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Hawaiian monk seals research.
“We don’t know how long that immigration took to occur, perhaps hundreds of thousands of years,” Littnan said. “We do know that quite dramatic climate change was happening, and these are tropical animals that will have to go to where they are better adapted to survive. They probably went to other areas and didn’t survive. But Hawaii was this perfect match for this far-traveling seafarer.” […]
Source: The Hawaiian Monk Seal, Living Fossil, Dan Nakaso, Special Report, Honolulu Star Advertiser, 15 January 2012. [PDF 20.2 MB]
$30,000 Reward
Media Watch, Honolulu Star Advertiser, 12 January 2012
Rewards of up to $30,000, the largest of its kind in Hawaii, are being offered for confidential tips that lead to the arrest and conviction of whoever killed three critically endangered Hawaiian monk seals on Molokai and Kauai since November.
Tips on each killing come with individual $10,000 rewards, for a total of $30,000 for all three cases, said Inga Gibson, Hawaii’s state director for the Humane Society of the United States. […]
Today, Aila [chairman of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources] and Gibson [Hawaii’s state director for the Humane Society of the United States] announced a new toll-free, confidential hotline for tips that can lead to the $10,000 and $30,000 rewards — 1-855-DLNR-TIP. [More]
Source: $30,000 in rewards offered for clues on who killed monk seals, Dan Nakaso, Honolulu Star Advertiser, 12 January 2012