{"id":1443,"date":"2011-01-28T14:10:26","date_gmt":"2011-01-28T14:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/?p=1443"},"modified":"2011-01-28T14:11:09","modified_gmt":"2011-01-28T14:11:09","slug":"musings-trails-and-seals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/2011\/01\/28\/musings-trails-and-seals\/","title":{"rendered":"Musings: Trails and Seals"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5>Media Watch, Joan Conrow, KauaiEclectic, 26 January 2011<\/h5>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1444\" title=\"DSCF2538b\" src=\"http:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/DSCF2538b.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/DSCF2538b.jpg 300w, https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/DSCF2538b-150x100.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>[&#8230;] After swimming at the northern end of the beach, I was heading back when  I spotted four men and two women mugging an endangered Hawaiian monk  seal that I\u2019d previously seen sleeping peacefully among the rocks. The  seal\u2019s face was covered with a net, but its eyes met mine and they  conveyed terror, which left me with a sickeningly disturbed feeling that  still lingers.<\/p>\n<p>Although signs erected around a snoozing seal further down the beach  warned the public to stay away, this group was allowed to conduct the  equivalent of an alien abduction\u2014 taking blood and fat samples, swabbing  all its orifices and gluing a radio transmitter onto its back \u2014 because  they are federal scientists striving to protect the seal, or at least  help us humans figure out how to do so &#8212; provided it doesn&#8217;t cause our  species too much inconvenience.<\/p>\n<p>While I understand the NOAA and  NMFS folks have the very best intentions \u2014 which, as well know, also  pave the proverbial road to hell \u2014 if you check out the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmfs.noaa.gov\/pr\/permits\/eis\/hawaiianmonkseal.htm\"> Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement<\/a> for studying the dwindling seal population, you really have to wonder  just how much trauma will be inflicted upon these native marine mammals  in an effort to \u201crecover\u201d them. [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/kauaieclectic.blogspot.com\/2011\/01\/musings-trails-and-seals.html\">Full Story<\/a>: KauaiEclectic<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Media Watch, Joan Conrow, KauaiEclectic, 26 January 2011 [&#8230;] After swimming at the northern end of the beach, I was heading back when I spotted four men and two women mugging an endangered Hawaiian monk seal that I\u2019d previously seen sleeping peacefully among the rocks. The seal\u2019s face was covered with a net, but its &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/2011\/01\/28\/musings-trails-and-seals\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Musings: Trails and Seals&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[30,34,44],"class_list":["post-1443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hawaiian-monk-seal","tag-main-hawaiian-islands","tag-human-seal-interaction","tag-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1443"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1448,"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1443\/revisions\/1448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}