Tag: NWHI

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Paid not to fish

Media Watch, Christopher Pala, Honolulu Weekly, 13 October 2010

Some folks made a killing depleting the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. Wait ‘til you see how much they’ll make not to fish there anymore.

The news came innocuously enough, in a press release earlier this year from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. As a result of former President George W. Bush’s designation of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands as a marine national monument in June 2006, Congress appropriated funds to compensate the owners of seven bottomfish licenses and 15 lobster licenses because they would no longer be able to fish there. The bottom-fishermen would share $2.2 million, the lobster fishermen $4.3 million. All licenses had been given out for free. […]

After two temporary closures by NOAA, the Honolulu federal court closed the fishery again in 2000 because of still-disputed evidence that the collapse of the lobster population had triggered mass starvation among monk seal pups, and that in turn caused a 5 percent yearly decline in the monk seal population. The fishery was never reopened, presumably because the lobster stocks never recovered, and the monk seal pups in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are still starving. […]

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Update from Papahānaumokuākea

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument

The August 2010 monthly update provides the following information on Hawaiian monk seals from the FWS Papahānaumokuākea team:

Two Hawaiian monk seals in danger of entanglement, as they rest on a pile of derelict fishing gear. John Klavitter/USFWS

“Hawaiian Islands NWR – French Frigate Shoals/ Tern Island […] Staff conducted marine debris pickups throughout the month. On one day alone, a full pallet tub of debris, nets, rope, wire, and trash was removed from East Island. Removal of netting, ropes, and wire is especially important to prevent Hawaiian monk seals and green turtles from potentially becoming entangled. […]

The French Frigate Shoals updates regarding Hawaiian monk seal activities are: 36 monk seal pups have been born; 5 are still nursing; 21 have weaned (of which 3 were killed by sharks); 1 pup died before it was weaned; and 6 pups have disappeared. Two weaned pups with nonfatal shark bites were frequenting East Island. […]

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Summer field season draws to close in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands

NOAA PIFSC, 4 August 2010

The NOAA Ship Oscar Elton Sette is at sea for 19 days on a scientific expedition to support Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) staff studying monk seals in the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI).

Work on the highly endangered Hawaiian monk seal is being carried out by the Monk Seal Research Program, the PIFSC group responsible for monitoring the status of the seal population, conducting research to better understand factors affecting abundance of the seals, and finding ways to enhance the population’s recovery. Essential to the research program are field camps at the six major monk seal breeding locations in the NWHI. The camps are occupied by researchers during the summer as bases of operations for seal monitoring and other scientific work. During its current expedition, the Sette will pick up scientists and their equipment from field camps at French Frigate Shoals, Lisianski Island, Pearl and Hermes Reef, and Kure Atoll where seasonal studies have been completed. The vessel’s crew will also exchange personnel and resupply an existing camp at Laysan Island, resupply a camp at Kure that will re-commence operations in September, and conduct surveys of seals at Mokumanamana, Nihoa Island, and Kaula Rock.

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Good news/bad news for Hawaiian monk seals

Media Watch, Good news/bad news for Hawaiian monk seals, Earthsky.org, 3 August 2010

Jeff Walters is the Hawaiian monk seal recovery coordinator for NOAA Fisheries Service. Walters said that in the isolated northwest Hawaiian islands, the number of monk seals is declining by four percent every year. That’s the bad news. But the good news is that a smaller population of seals on the main Hawaiian islands is growing and thriving, he said.

Jeff Walters: Over the past few years, we’ve had twenty or more seals born in the main Hawaiian islands every year.

Even though the main Hawaiian islands have a much larger human population, the seals are doing better there because they don’t have as much competition for food, or as many predators, said Walters. But, he added, when people try to feed or play with the seals, it runs the risk of “taming” them, which hurts the seal’s chances of surviving in the wild.

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Hawaiian monk seal assessment underway in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands

NOAA PIFSC, Quarterly Research Bulletin, June 2010

With the help of the NOAA Ship Oscar Elton Sette, summer field camps for the annual assessment of Hawaiian monk seals in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) were recently deployed by PIFSC at all major NWHI monk seal breeding locations.

Field camp operations at most locations got a fresh start, but at Laysan Island, operations are simply continuing research that has been carried out there since last summer. Over the past winter, staff of the PIFSC Protected Species Division (PSD) operated a camp at Laysan Island for the first time to collect data on survival of juvenile seals during the winter and investigate whether de-worming of juvenile seals will increase their survival rate. The winter camp was set up in August 2009 and resupplied in December 2009 and March 2010. During their winter stay, scientists at the Laysan camp monitored the population and collected data on monk seal reproduction, reporting the birth of 21 pups.

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NMFS Commercial Shark Cull Hawaii

Web Watch, Shark Diver, 16 May 2010

Ocean Associates Inc. is seeking two candidates who will provide professional support services to the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center to conduct fieldwork in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands.

This year NMFS will be undertaking efforts to remove predatory Galapagos sharks at Hawaiian monk seal pupping sites at French Frigate Shoals. Assistants will capture sharks using a variety of techniques, mitigate monk seal mortality, collect biological samples and produce written documents in support of monk seal research efforts.
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