Press Watch, Honolulu Advertiser, December 17, 2009
Molokai resident Leimana Naki said he found this dead Hawaiian monk seal outside the reef breakers near Kahinapohaku Fishpond and towed it to shore with his kayak.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service’s Office of Law Enforcement is investigating the recent death of an endangered Hawaiian monk seal on Molokai as a deliberate killing.
An adult male monk seal was discovered dead on Monday, southeast of Kaunakakai, said David Schofield, with NOAA’s Pacific Island Regional Office’s marine mammal response program.
A necropsy of the seal on Tuesday determined that it had been killed intentionally, Schofield said. [...]
Anyone with information about the seal’s death is encouraged to call NOAA’s 24-hour enforcement hot line at 800-853-1964. [...]
This year on Kauai, two Hawaiian monk seals have been deliberately killed, alarming conservationists who are working hard to preserve the rare seals, which are found only in Hawaii. The wild population of the seals is 1,200 or less and dropping 4 percent a year. [...]
