Search on for monk seal injured by fishing tackle

State conservation officials on Maui are looking for an injured Hawaiian monk seal with a fishhook lodged in its neck.

“We want the reports to come to us on a real-time basis, so we can go out and … try to get rid of the hook before it becomes a life-threatening situation,” state Land Board Chairman William Aila said at a news conference Thursday.

Authorities said the seal, a female known as RL06 who was born at Kalaupapa, looked to be in fair shape despite the hook when it was seen Saturday off Olowalu, west Maui, but could suffer complications such as infection or damage to its esophagus and arteries.

The injured seal is about 11 months old and weighs nearly 200 pounds.

Hawaiian monk seals are an endangered species, with only an estimated 1,100 left in the Northwestern and main Hawaiian Islands.

Aila said a man fishing for ulua Saturday off Olowalu told state officials that a monk seal broke his line and took the hook.

Since then, about six people, including those on tour boats, have reported seeing the hooked monk seal.

Of five hooked monk seals reported this year, one animal died and the rest were caught and the hooks removed, federal officials said.

Aila praised the fisherman for reporting the incident and asked the public to continue reporting the seal’s location.

“This is exactly the type of cooperation we need from the community,” he said.

State officials said a young monk seal died in January after it was hooked, and another seal was severely injured by a hook last year. Officials said the seal injured last year suffered severe injuries because its condition was not reported early. 

The ulua fisherman in the latest case notified state and federal officials Monday.

Aila said the fisherman faces no legal action because the injury was an accident. Intentionally harming a monk seal is a felony, he said.

Authorities have received reports of the injured seal at Olowalu being fed by people and interacting with them, said David Schofield, a federal marine mammal program manager.

“The public is encouraged not to feed or interact with monk seals,” he said. “If they become tame, they will seek out attention from people and they’ll also take unnatural food sources like fish off a fishhook.”

Anyone seeing the seal is asked to call the monk seal toll-free hotline at 888-256-9840, or 292-2372 on Oahu.