Saving Seafood

Man Sentenced to Prison for Beating Hawaiian Monk Seal

September 6, 2017 — It took less than an hour for the video to go viral; less than 2 days for federal, state, and local authorities to make an arrest; and less than 15 months to resolve the case and send the guilty party to jail. On July 26, Shylo Akuna was sentenced to 4 years in prison after being found guilty of harassment of a critically endangered Hawaiian monk seal.

“It’s a top priority for NOAA Fisheries, NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement, and our state enforcement partners to protect our nation’s critically endangered marine mammals,” said Jim Landon, Director of NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement (OLE). “This case is a great example of collaborative partnership resulting in a successful prosecution.”

The horrific scene took place on April 26, 2016, at Saltponds Beach on the island of Kauai. Luckily, the harassment was caught on video by witnesses on the beach and subsequently uploaded to social media where it drew worldwide attention and condemnation. The video showed a man, later identified as Akuna, approaching a resting pregnant monk seal, identified as RK-30, and punching the animal repeatedly. OLE was notified of the video almost immediately. The following day, OLE and its enforcement partners from the Hawaii’s Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement (DOCARE) interviewed witnesses and Akuna, who had already been identified as a suspect. At that point, Akuna admitted to being intoxicated at the time of the assault.

Read the full story at NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement

Endangered Hawaiian monk seal population rises to 1,400

January 25, 2017 — HONOLULU — The population of Hawaiian monk seals — one of the world’s most critically endangered marine mammals — has been increasing 3 percent a year for the past three years, federal wildlife officials said Tuesday.

There are now about 1,400 of the seals in the wild, said Charles Littnan, lead scientist of the Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“This is phenomenal, hopeful news for the population,” Littnan told reporters. “Yet we have a long way to go to recovery.”

The population has experienced increases in the past, including the mid-2000s, but Littnan characterized those as minor blips.

Hawaiian monk seals declined in numbers for years, most recently as juveniles struggled to compete for food with large fish and sharks in the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, a mostly uninhabited stretch of tiny atolls that includes Midway.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Virginian-Pilot

Obama to Designate New National Monuments; Atlantic Monument Still Under Consideration

February 12, 2016 — The following is an excerpt from a story by Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post White House bureau chief, who addresses new national monuments to be declared this week, and mentions possibilities for additional designations before the end of the Obama Administration including New England corals, canyons, and seamounts, and an expansion of Papahanaumokuakea in the Pacific.

“We have big, big ambitions this year, so let’s see what happens,” said Christy Goldfuss, managing director of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, adding that the administration is focused on “local requests for action. It’s really been driven by activities on the ground.

The big question: What next?

Other possible future designations include Bears Ears, a sacred site for several Native American tribes in southeastern Utah; Stonewall, the site of a 1969 inn riot by members of New York City’s gay community; the New England Coral Canyons and Seamounts; the historic headquarters of the National Woman’s Party, Sewall-Belmont House in Washington, D.C.; and Nevada’s Gold Butte, an area where rancher Cliven Bundy and his supporters have defied federal authorities.

It is less clear what Obama will do in federal waters, where nearly all of the strict protections are in the central Pacific. There are a group of Hawaiians lobbying the president to expand Papahanaumokuakea – a monument George W. Bush created a decade ago, whose islands and atolls are home to 1,750 marine species found nowhere else on Earth – to the full extent under the law. That would make it 520,000 square miles, or nine times its current size.

“Some people here are working here to provide the president with a legacy opportunity,” said William Aila Jr., looking down from a rocky outcropping in Oahu as two endangered Hawaiian monk seals nestled below. “It would be the largest marine protected area for a long, long time. It would be almost impossible to top it.”

Read the full story at the Washington Post

NOAA announces plan for endangered Hawaiian monk seal

August 11, 2015 — Federal fisheries authorities want to more than double the small population of endangered Hawaiian monk seals in the state’s main islands.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Marine Fisheries Service on Tuesday released a draft management plan for the endangered species, of which approximately 200 live in the main Hawaiian Islands.

There are approximately 1,100 Hawaiian monk seals total, with most of them living in the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The species was listed as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act in 1976.

NOAA’s Hawaiian Monk Seal Recovery Coordinator Rachel Sprague said that while the population of monk seals in the main Hawaiian Islands has been increasing, the overall population continues to decline.

“The main Hawaiian Islands have a fairly small portion of the overall monk seal population,” Sprague said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “If climate change or sea level rise or infectious disease did get into the population, they could be really catastrophic for such a small population. Rather than thinking about trying to really do a lot of active interventions, we’re more trying to set up a situation for the future to support the monk seal population growing to a level where they could be considered recovered.”

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Jersey Herald