Monk seal restored to good health, released on Kauai
COURTESY LAURA GROTE / THE MARINE MAMMAL CENTER
Hawaiian monk seal RH38 rests on the pen floor during rehabilitation at The Marine Mammal Center’s Ke Kai Ola hospital in Kona.
COURTESY NOAA
RH38, a female yearling Hawaiian monk seal, hauls out on a Kauai beach on Saturday, one day after her release back to the wild.
COURTESY THE MARINE MAMMAL CENTER
Members of the U.S. Coast Guard help secure the carrier of Hawaiian monk seal RH38 in Kona prior to her transport to Kauai for release last week.
A formerly malnourished Hawaiian monk seal was released back to the shores of Kauai on Friday after two months of rehabilitation at Ke Kai Ola in Kona, according to The Marine Mammal Center.
Hawaiian monk seal RH38, a female yearling, was picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard on Kauai’s North Shore and transported to Ke Kai Ola in August. She was the hospital’s first patient from Kauai to be rehabilitated at the center.
She was spotted in poor condition on Milolii Beach by a member of the Pacific Island Region Marine Mammal Response Network. At just under 90 pounds, it was clear that she required care.
“The rescue and rehabilitation of RH38 was a unique opportunity,” said Claire Simeone, the center’s conservation medicine veterinarian. “With only a few hundred monk seals in the main Hawaiian islands, the survival of each individual is critical to the recovery of the population.”
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates that the current monk seal population is at about 1,400, with about 1,100 in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and 300 in the main Hawaiian islands.
Kai Kai Ola, a center dedicated to the care of endangered Hawaiian monk seals run by The Marine Mammal Center of California, has admitted 23 monk seals since opening in 2014 in partnership with NOAA Fisheries. A total of 20 have been released back to the Northwestern Hawaiian islands.
Two monk seal patients — Awapuhi and Koani pehu — rescued from French Frigate Shoals, remain at Ke Kai Ola.
