In April, a male Hawaiian monk seal was killed on Kauai. This month, a pregnant female monk seal was found floating in the water, apparently shot to death. (Honolulu Advertiser article here) TWO monk seal deaths in ONE month on ONE island. Hawaiian monk seals are an endangered species that call Hawaii its home. There's about 1100 of them left. Majority of them live up in the Northwest Hawaiian islands while about 100 or so live in the main Hawaiian islands. Last year there were three births on Oahu. Although we were hoping for some females, all three pups were males. Sadly, one of them did not survive. About two months after it weaned, the pup's dead body was discovered on a beach on the east side of the island. If you want to learn more about the Hawaiian monk seal, the NOAA's website has some great info and more pictures.
If you spot a monk seal, consider yourself lucky. There aren't too many of them left. Keep this number 220-7802 handy and give it a call when you see a monk seal on the beach. That one call will help get volunteers like me and John out to watch over it while it's hauled out. =)
This is so sad! Shot to death?!
ReplyDeleteWe *think* we saw one in Kauai. A dark-looking thing (too big and long to be a turtle) popped its head up at Moloa'a Beach when we were there. Even though we don't even know if it was a monk seal or not, I still feel lucky...