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CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / crussell@staradvertiser.com
An adult female monk seal spent Tuesday lounging on the shores of Queen's Surf in Waikiki.
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Beachgoers were asked to keep their distance from a Hawaiian monk seal that visited the beach at Queen’s Surf in Waikiki Tuesday.
As an endangered species, Hawaiian monk seals enjoy federal safeguards, including protection against harassment.
Officials posted warning signs and a tape perimeter around the seal. Federal guidelines bar people from coming within 150 feet of seals.
The National Marine Fisheries Service said the monk seal, a female known as RH58, travels between Kauai and Oahu and likes visiting Waikiki.
"She has been known to visit the Waikiki area a few times per year," federal fisheries spokeswoman Wende Goo said.
Goo said RH58 was born on Kauai in 2000 and had a pup this spring on the Garden Island.
An estimated 153 Hawaiian monk seals live in the main Hawaiian Islands, while some 907 dwell in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, federal officials said.
The fisheries service is accepting comments until Jan. 6 on a proposed rule to expand the critical habitat areas for Hawaiian monk seals in the main Hawaiian Islands, where their numbers are increasing.
The seal population is decreasing in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, scientists said.
Federal officials define a critical habitat as an area essential to a species’ conservation.