Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 34, Number 3, 1 March 2017 — REVIVAL [ARTICLE]

REVIVAL

What's Making the Monk Seals Happy? You might say it takes a village to raise a seal pup. Dr. Charles Littnan, lead scientist for the program, estimates that at least 28 percent of the seals in existence today are here because they either directly benefited from intervention, or are children or grandchildren of rescued females. Collective interventions like supportive efforts for mother and pup monk seals, freeing seals from debris and nets and performing hook removal and other surgeries have also played a big role in their recovery. "We have done a lot of work to make sure female seals survived, and now we are getting a little help from Mother Nature," says Dr. Littnan. He cites favorable environmental eonditions, like E1 Nino, whieh has enabled a large oeean frontal zone to carry nutrients far enough south to spur a population spike. Hawai'i's Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) Division of Aquatic Resources Marine Wildlife Program (MWP) performs

direct response work with community members throughout the island ehain, including engaging the fishing community to switch to barbless fishing hooks, whieh remove threat of injury to seals. And in 2014, nonprofit organization The Marine Mammal Center opened the first-ever hospital solely for monk seal rehabilitation, assisting around 2 percent of the monk seal population to date. However, for monk seals in the NWHI, food limitations, entanglement with marine debris and sharks continue to be major issues, while manmade threats are the main eoneem near populated islands.

Foīīow the Hawaiian Monk Seal Research program on Facebook: @FIMSRP