Monk seal’s near-fatal injury prompts reminder to public

State and federal officials are reminding the public to report any Hawaiian monk seals in distress after one came close to dying from a fishhook.

"She was on her last legs," said Charles Littnan, lead scientist for the federal Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program.

Littnan and state Land Board Chairman William Aila held a news conference Monday to encourage people to report any monk seal that is skinny or appears malnourished or has a physical problem, including a fishhook in its mouth.

The monk seal, known by her tags as R5AY but also called Honey Girl, was captured by federal fisheries officials on Sunset Beach on Nov. 17.

She apparently had the hook in her mouth for at least three weeks, Littnan said.

She was transported to the Waikiki Aquarium for evaluation and care and later to the Waikiki Zoo for reconstructive surgery.

AILA said the seal, who has given birth to seven known pups during her life, had an ulua hook lodged in her cheek, suffered large swelling in her mouth, underwent surgery and lost one-third of her tongue because the tissue could not be saved.

According to the state, federal and state officials responded to 14 Hawaiian monk seal hooking incidents so far in 2012, including three that ended in death, officials said.

From November 2011 through April, federal and conservation officials received reports of four monk seal deaths under suspicious circumstances in the main Hawaiian Islands — two on Kauai and two on Molokai.

Federal officials said they have not received any further reports of suspicious deaths.

The majority of Hawaiian monk seals, or Monachus schauinslandi, listed as an endangered species by the federal government, live in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

They were hunted nearly to extinction in the early 1900s.

Federal officials say the population of Hawaiian monk seals, totaling fewer than 1,200, is declining at about 4 percent annually, and biologist predict the numbers will dip below 1,000 in three to four years.

Meanwhile, the population in the main Hawaiian Islands is increasing and is estimated at more than 100.