Officials propose to move monk seal pups

Hawaii commercial fishermen forced to abide by a government catch quota say they face another potential threat to their livelihood — the relocation of monk seals from the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands to the main Hawaiian Islands.

Commercial fisherman Layne Nakagawa said he has complied with annual catch quotas on seven Hawaii bottomfish. But Nakagawa said he and others who fish commercially are strongly opposed to a recent proposal by federal officials to relocate and raise Hawaiian monk seal pups in the main Hawaiian Islands.

"We feel it’s going to devastate fishing on our seashores," Nakagawa said.

He said the seals will also have an impact on lobster and octopus grounds.

If the National Marine Fisheries Service receives the permits and funding, the relocation program would begin in 2012 at the earliest, federal officials said.

In a draft environmental impact statement released Aug. 19, federal officials propose relocating no more than 20 Hawaiian monk seal pups annually and allowing them to live in waters off the main Hawaiian Islands for a period of three years in an effort to increase their chances of survival.

After the three years, the monk seals would be returned to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

Scientists estimate the population of the Hawaiian monk seal, listed as an endangered species in 1976, at about 1,100. The number has been steadily declining — about 4.5 percent annually and by 40 percent in the last decade.

Federal officials estimate there are about 200 Hawaiian monk seals in the main Hawaiian Islands.

Jeff Walters, the National Marine Fisheries Service’s Marine Mammal Branch chief, said juvenile survival among monk seals is higher in the main Hawaiian Islands and scientists think it would slow the steep decline in the monk seal population.

Walters said at the most, there would be 60 transferred monk seals, and that their overall impact would be "extremely small."

Walters, noting an abundance of fish in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands where there are 900 Hawaiian monk seals, said there is strong evidence the animals do not devastate fisheries.

Walters said sharks kill up to 25 percent of monk seal pups annually at French Frigate Shoals and there are other causes of high mortality, including the inability of young seals to compete for food in the presence of other predators.

"It is common that monk seals will do the work exposing prey and these other predators swoop in and eat it," he said.

Other factors affecting the decrease in the population include disease and entanglement in debris. Walters said young monk seals appear to do better in the main Hawaiian Islands probably because there is less competition from predators.

He said that in the past, scientists have rehabilitated seals in the main Hawaiian Islands and that, once transported to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, none has returned.

While the fisheries service scientists have a program for rescuing seals from debris, their draft environmental impact statement discarded the option of killing sharks to reduce predation upon seals in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

Federal officials said they have insufficient information to make a reliable prediction whether predator reduction would be effective in improving juvenile monk seal survival.

Maui fisherman Basil Oshiro said the scientists should start a shark-reduction program in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands to improve the chances of the monk seals’ survival.

Oshiro said bringing monk seal pups to the main Hawaiian Islands will increase the chances of the seals coming into human contact and losing their instinct to survive in the wild.

"It’s not a very good idea," he said.

Oshiro said federal officials halted commercial fishing in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and now want to bring the monk seal to eat the fish in the main Hawaiian Islands.

"What’s going to be left for human consumption?" he said.

A draft of the federal Monk Seal Recovery Actions is available for public review at www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/permits/eis/hawaiianmonkseal.htm.

Comments will be accepted until Oct.17 and can be submitted to either monkseal@noaa.gov, or NMFS PIRO, Hawaiian Monk Seal Recovery Actions PEIS, 1601 Kapiolani Blvd., Suite 1110, Honolulu, HI 96814.