Prism Webcast News

Make Way for Monk Seals — New Habitat Protections Urged

Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Posted in Marine | Tagged Marine

Hawaiian monk seals once had an enviable lot in life, thriving among a secluded chain of islands and atolls northwest of the main Hawaiian islands. But move over, tourists: Monk seals, starving and losing their own remote beaches to global-warming-caused sea-level rise and erosion, are moving to the main islands. Seal numbers have plummeted in the northwestern islands since the 1950’s, making the Hawaiian monk seal one of the world’s most endangered mammals. But on the main islands, where food is more abundant, seals are birthing healthy pups into a growing population.

Unfortunately, life on the less-paradisical main islands brings new threats to the seals, including disturbance, development, disease, and entanglement in fishing gear. On Wednesday, the Center for Biological Diversity, KAHEA: The Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance, and Ocean Conservancy petitioned the federal government to have beaches and surrounding waters on the main Hawaiian islands designated as critical habitat to better protect the monk seal, which currently has critical habitat designated only on the northwestern islands.

The Hawaiian monk seal is one of two surviving species of monk seals, along with the also critically-endangered Mediterranean monk seal. The Caribbean monk seal, not seen in half a century, was recently declared extinct.

Read our petition for Hawaiian monk seals.