On Saturday, September 4, 2010, team “Hawaiian Monk Seal” from The Marine Mammal Center will compete in the Maui Channel Swim to support the Center’s efforts to raise funds to build an urgently needed hospital for monk seals in Kona. The female swimmers will join 52 teams and 20 solo swimmers from around the world in a daring 10 mile crossing of the Au Au Channel from the beach at Lanai to Black Rock on the shores of Kaanapali. The channel is well known for dangers to swimmers such as swift currents, tiger sharks, and the Portuguese Man O’ War. The first Maui Channel Swim took place in 1972 and since then, it has grown to become the longest open water relay swim in the world. To help team “hawaiian Monk Seal” achieve their fundraising goal of $11K and save future populations of Hawaiian monk seals, go to: http://www.marinemammalcenter.org/what-you-can-do/events/team-from-the-marine-mammal.html.
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.
Unfortunately, a monk seal was attacked by a Pit Bull earlier today (Friday, July 30) in the Kau region. Reports from the NOAA law enforcement agency say the attack lasted for about a minute until the seal retreated into the ocean. The extent of injury is unknown, and very little information is currently known about this matter. If you have any information (location attack may have taken place, name of dog owner, recent seal sightings, etc.) please contact our monk seal line at 808-756-5961, or email hmmrn@hawaii.edu .
A bill seeking tougher penalties for anyone caught intentionally harming the Hawaiian monk seal, or other endangered Hawaii species, became state law this week.
Hawaii Lt. Gov. James “Duke” Aiona signed Senate Bill 2441 into law, making the intentional harassing, harming or killing of a monk seal—or any endangered or threatened Hawaii species—a class C felony. The new Hawaii law extends punishment already imposed by violations of the federal Endangered Species Act, to include a fine of up to $50,000 and five years in prison. [...]
Just published: the June 2010 issue of The Monachus Guardian, the biannual journal focusing on the Mediterranean, Hawaiian and Caribbean monk seals.
This issue of The Monachus Guardian brings a special focus to the Mediterranean monk seals shot and dynamited in the Eastern Mediterranean since January. What is actually being done to eliminate the single most serious mortality threat confronting the species?
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE CURRENT ISSUE:
Editorial: An epidemic of killings.
Hawaiian News: Seal numbers continue to dive…
Mediterranean News: Greece: Alarming numbers of dead seals… Mauritania: Record births at Cabo Blanco… Turkey: Monk seal deaths in the Turkish Aegean… New population size assessment study in the NE Mediterranean…
Cover Story: Markos’ Case: Trauma, treatment, and reflections, by Emily Joseph.
In Focus I: Monk seal killed by dynamite blast in the Aegean, by Anastasia Miliou.
In Focus II: Nefeli’s rehabilitation: methods, results, and challenges, by Emily Joseph.
Perspectives: The world’s two remaining monk seal species: how many different ways are there of being Critically Endangered? by Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara.
Research: Mediterranean monk seal, Monachus monachus, re-sighted along the Israeli coastline after more than half a century, by Aviad Scheinin, Oz Goffman, Mia Elasar and Dani Kerem…
Press Watch, Honolulu Star Bulletin, April 16, 2010
A female monk seal, nicknamed Mikala, was found drowned Tuesday, wrapped in a gillnet off of Bellows Beach.
The state Department of Land and Natural Resources is investigating the apparent drowning of a 9 1/2 -month-old Hawaiian monk seal that was discovered tangled in a gillnet—the sixth such death since 1976.
At 10:26 a.m. Tuesday, the female monk seal, identified by scientists as RA14, was spotted floating off Bellows Beach. Lifeguards discovered the seal wrapped in a monofilament gillnet and pulled her from the water.
Necropsy results determined the seal, nicknamed Mikala, died of an apparent drowning due to the entanglement. [...]
The Conservation and Resources Enforcement Division seized the netting as part of its investigation. It is unknown who owns the net.
Under state law all lay nets must be registered with the Department of Land and Natural Resources. It is unlawful to leave a lay net unattended for more than a half-hour. Nets also must be inspected within two hours after they are set.
Hawaiian monk seals are protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Killing one is punishable by up to a year in jail and a $50,000 fine. [...]
Navy pays for devices that also gauge how sonar affects species
Up to 15 monk seals in Hawai’i will be doing their part over the coming year to help scientists understand them better.
The critically endangered animals will wear small transmitters that reveal their movements, including how deep they dive, when they haul out on land and how far they roam.
Accumulating normal habits of the seals also will be used to gauge the effect Navy training exercises, including use of sonar, may have on the animals.
The Navy is footing the bill for the $4,500-each transmitters, NOAA scientists’ travel and veterinary costs associated with the project. The project is slated to last several years.
LIHU‘E — “Maha‘ulepu Mama” is no Hawaiian monk seal to mess with.
She takes her role in perpetuating the endangered species very seriously, and woe to the woman or man who comes too close to her newborn.
Scientifically known as K12, she has given birth to at least four pups at Maha‘ulepu Beach on the South Shore. The most recent, PK4 (sex unknown at present), was earlier this month.
Authorities are continuing to investigate an encounter Monday that involved K12 taking a few bites out of Rebecca Wahlman, 28, of Kirkland, Wash.
Wahlman spent Monday night at Wilcox Memorial Hospital, where she received treatment for superficial wounds, according to a county press release. She was released on Tuesday, according to a hospital spokesperson. [...]
On Saturday, September 4, 2010, team “Hawaiian Monk Seal” from The Marine Mammal Center will compete in the Maui Channel Swim to support the Center’s efforts to raise funds to build an urgently needed hospital for monk seals in Kona. The female swimmers will join 52 teams and 20 solo swimmers from around the world in a daring 10 mile crossing of the Au Au Channel from the beach at Lanai to Black Rock on the shores of Kaanapali. The channel is well known for dangers to swimmers such as swift currents, tiger sharks, and the Portuguese Man O’ War. The first Maui Channel Swim took place in 1972 and since then, it has grown to become the longest open water relay swim in the world. To help team “hawaiian Monk Seal” achieve their fundraising goal of $11K and save future populations of Hawaiian monk seals, go to: http://www.marinemammalcenter.org/what-you-can-do/events/team-from-the-marine-mammal.html.
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.
A bill seeking tougher penalties for anyone caught intentionally harming the Hawaiian monk seal, or other endangered Hawaii species, became state law this week.
