Press Watch, WPTV, November 13, 2009

JUPITER, FL — A young monk seal off the coast of Hawaii is gaining a lot of attention. The seal named KP2 has been featured in the Wall Street Journal  and is the talk of the town from Hawaii to Jupiter. [...]

Carmen Colitz of Jupiter will be conducting the surgery to remove its cataracts which has left the 18th month old seal 80% blind. [...]

Colitz, a veterinarian specializing in seal and sea lion eye surgery around the world, will head to California to perform the surgery in early Spring. KP2 is in captivity at Waikiki’s aquarium right now. After its surgery in California it will have a permanent home at Sea Life Park in Oahu.

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Press Watch, Honolulu Advertiser, October 28, 2009

A Waikíkí Aquarium staff member offers a fish to Nukaau, a 29-year-old monk seal that hasn't been feeling well lately. Waikíkí Aquarium photo

A Waikíkí Aquarium Hawaiian monk seal has undergone a thorough physical checkup after falling ill over the weekend.

Nukaau, 29, became lethargic and lost his appetite, said Andrew Rossiter, aquarium director.

“He just doesn’t seem interested in anything,” Rossiter said yesterday. “But when you consider his equivalent to 90-95 years old (in human years), that’s perhaps an off day.” [...]

Nuka is one of three monk seals at the aquarium. Another elderly male is on display and a young wild seal, KP2, was recently placed there because of cataracts.

KP2 was raised in captivity. He had been released but recaptured with the goal to relocate him this month because he was interacting with humans and had become too rough.

→ Continue reading Tests run on ailing Hawaiian monk seal

Press Watch, Letters, Honolulu Weekly, October 28, 2009

Some of us from Molokaʻi visited Oahu (The Waikiki Aquarium) to demand that NOAA return our seal, KP2, to Molokaʻi. NOAA came to Molokaʻi early on the morning of Oct. 16 and stole our seal. NOAA promised us at a community meeting that we would have between two and four months to educate our community about dealing with KP2, as this seal pup spent the summer swimming with our kids and joining in our canoe races.

Lies and covert actions don’t go with us, so we will protest and demand that NOAA return our seal, who has become a special hoʻailona for Molokaʻi. KP2 is a living fossil, whose species is more than 10 million years old. They were here before our islands were formed. They are now in near-extinction. KP2 has come to represent us as Hawaiians, as we both struggle for survival in these Hawaiian Islands. How we treat the Hawaiian monk seal is how we can be expected to be treated as Hawaiians.

— Walter Ritte, Kaunakakai, Molokai

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A group of protestors from Molokai demonstrated in front of the Waikiki Aquarium on Wednesday morning against the decision to pull a monk seal out of the wild.

Photo Courtesy KITV

Press Watch, Honolulu Star Bulletin, October 22, 2009

Molokai residents say a federal agency should not have removed a Hawaiian monk seal without their consent

Molokai residents flew to Oahu to protest a federal agency’s removal of a nearly blind Hawaiian monk seal from waters off Kaunakakai.

The residents, who held signs yesterday in front of the Waikiki Aquarium where the seal was taken, said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration removed the seal known as “KP2″ without consulting the Molokai community.

They also said the seal should have been treated for cataracts months ago.

“The kids loved that seal,” said Molokai resident Karen Holt. “There was no opportunity to say goodbye. Nothing.”

Keiko Bonk, the Hawaii program director for the Marine Conservation Biology Institute’s monk seal campaign, said there needs to be more communication between the community and NOAA seal recovery officials.

Hanohano Naehu, who lives on Molokai, said federal officials need to find a better way of working with Hawaii residents in the recovery of the monk seals, especially with the animal’s numbers increasing on the island. [...]

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Press Watch, Honolulu Advertiser, October 20, 2009

Ailment prevents endangered animal from being set free

The first Hawaiian monk seal successfully raised from birth in captivity was diagnosed with cataracts after being plucked from Kaunakakai Harbor on Friday, which means he won’t be going back to the wild.

It’s rare to see cataracts in a seal so young.

At under 2 years old, the seal — called KP2 — is still considered an adolescent. [...]

“Every individual is important to the population,” said David Schofield, NOAA marine mammal response coordinator.

Schofield said it’s believed KP2 developed cataracts at a young age because he missed out on mother’s milk.

So far, Schofield said, scientists have been unable to create a formula that matches the richness of natural seal milk.

KP2 will spend the rest of his life in captivity. Hawaiian monk seals live to be about 25 to 30 years old.

“He will likely spend the rest of his days,” Schofield said, “as an ambassador for monk seals.” [...]

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Press Watch, Molokai Dispatch, 17 October 2009

KP2, the young Hawaiian monk seal that had made Kaunakakai Wharf his home, was taken from the area by NOAA yesterday morning. He is currently being held at Waikiki Aquarium for a thorough medical exam, according to NOAA biologist David Schofield. Schofield would not say how long KP2 would remain at the aquarium or what the next move might be.

The community has mixed feelings about the seal’s departure. NOAA has discussed relocating KP2 to Ka`ula Rock near Niihau west of Kauai. Karen Holt of the Molokai Community Service Council said she is worried about the seal’s safety.

“The tiger shark population in the Ka’ula area is large and aggressive,” she explained.

Holt said she hopes that NOAA would do enough research to be able to assure those who had come to love KP2 that he would be safe.

But NOAA officials say they have believe KP2 has already survived shark  in his travels around Molokai and Lanai. They say he displays enough “wild” behaviors, like foraging on his own, that show he may still have a chance to live a normal seal’s life if relocated away from people while he is still young. NOAA officials say Niihau has the largest breeding population of Hawaiian monk seals in the Main Hawaiian Islands. [...]

NOAA has not given definite plans for KP2, but as of two weeks ago, relocating him to the Niihau area as well as placing him into captivity at Sea Life Park were still in discussion.

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Press Watch, Newser, September 15, 2009

Scientists fear monk seal pup raised by people will harm his human playmates

A seal pup that loves human company is facing deportation to hundreds of miles away from his Hawaiian home, the Wall Street Journal reports. Baby monk seal KP2, who often swims with people and even climbs on boogie boards, has become a much-loved local celebrity on Molokai since he showed up in February but wildlife experts warn that as he grows bigger, he may end up accidentally killing somebody by playing too rough and holding them underwater.

The problem, experts say, is that KP2, who was hand-reared by humans after being rejected by his mother, doesn’t seem to realize that he’s a seal. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration plans to move him around 200 miles away, although he soon found his way back to Molokai after an earlier effort  to remove him, and many want him to stay. “If they take him away one more time and he comes back, I don’t think this community will let NOAA take him again,” says the head of a local center that teaches children about Hawaii’s ecology.

Further info

Hawaiian Island to Evict Over-Friendly Seal, Newser,  September 15 2009

This Baby Seal Is a People Person, And That Makes Him Dangerous, Wall Street Journal, September 15, 2009