A Hawaiian monk seal pup is resting in Ke Kai Ola, the Marine Mammal Center’s dedicated hospital for monk seals in Kailua-Kona. The good news is the malnourished pup has a very good chance of recovering and being released back into the wild.
Endangered monk seal rescued from Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument kitv.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from kitv.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
But the hefty marine mammals are an endangered species, leading federal officials to look for non-lethal deterrents.
The National Marine Fisheries is proposing fisherman shoot the endangered seals with paintballs and sponge grenades.
However, the notion has sparked fury among animal rights advocates, with some calling the proposal horrid and that it would encourage more abuse against the endangered seals.
The agency says it is now reviewing comments from the public, and the response has been overwhelmingly negative.
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A Hawaiian monk seal resting on the beach on Kauai, Hawaii. There are only about 1,100 left but new nonlethal methods to deter the massive marine mammals have been met with resistance
Hawaii Magazine
Experience Ke Kai Ola, a hospital for Hawaiian monk seals, on its 2.5 hour walking tour.
Jan 26, 2021
There’s a dry-erase board at Ke Kai Ola, a monk seal hospital at Keāhole Point, with the names of its Hawaiian monk seal patients, where they’re from, when they arrived and their weights, both on arrival and now.
One look at this chart and you can see the impact this hospital, built by the California-based Marine Mammal Center, has had since it opened in 2014.
Hilina‘i, an emaciated monk seal pup rescued in September 2019 from the Pearl and Hermes Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, arrived weighing 57 pounds. Six months later, she’s 162 pounds. (Monk seals can weigh 200 pounds at 6 weeks old; adults weigh between 400 and 600 pounds.) Since 2014, the hospital has released nearly 30 healthy monk seals back into the wild.