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Project Noah Nature School
Monachus schauinslandi
Endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal and Three Day Old Pup. Will be resting and nursing on the beach for 6-8 weeks. Only 1,000 of these seals on the planet. The beach where these seals are is the site of a proposed resort expansion. This particular Mom, R5AY has given birth here 4 times over the past five years. One baby was relocated and was killed by a fishing net, her two other daughters are still here in the area. The sex of this pup has not been determined yet.
Hawaiian waters and coastline. These seals dive very deep to hunt and come out to rest on the shore. Most are found in the North West Hawaiian Islands NWHI, where they are in a Marine Sanctuary. Over the past decade they have been frequenting and pupping on the Main Hawaiian Islands MHI. This has led to a proposal that all the coastlines, (except for towns, harbors and some military areas) of the MHI be designated Critical Habitat for Monk Seals.
With 5 miles/8kms of coastline at Turtle Bay and 4 Seals of the 1,000 alive on the planet. This area is obviously cricitcal to these seals even before you factor in the pupping.
Spotted on Sep 3, 2012
Submitted on Sep 9, 2012
4 Comments
NancyBoim, I do not know anything about the Maui seal you speak of. Try to contact Nichole on Maui... We have three females that were born here at Turtle Bay that I see almost every day. Please go to Turtle Bay Endangered Species on Facebook to learn more about them and our work to save their coastal wetland habitat from development.
Can u update me on the status of the monk seal that was beached North of Black Rock in Maui. I was in Maui from May 28th thru June 6th. I was following her molting progress. She was about 70 percent complete when I left. I spent a good bit of time with Nichole who heads up the volunteer program. I really would like to see how this seal is doing. Thank you
Welcome to Project Noah, AngelaHuntemer. Lovely first spottings.
Wonderful shot, and great information. Thanks for sharing this spotting. If you want to add the scientific name it is Monachus schauinslandi. http://eol.org/pages/328635/overview