Rescuers free monk seal of hook lodged in mouth

For the second time in about three weeks a monk seal has appeared on Kaena Point with a fishing hook lodged in its mouth — but this time marine mammal responders deemed it safe enough to subdue the seal and remove the hook before it caused further pain and injury.

The hooked 3-year-old seal, known as Kaikaina, or RL54 to researchers, was first spotted in distress around noon Friday, according to Charles Littnan, lead scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program.

However, researchers didn’t learn about the hooking until later that night because the first person to report spotting the seal called a TV news station instead of NOAA’s toll-free mammal hotline, Littnan added.

On Saturday, a six-person team, including biologists and veterinarians, found Kaikaina hauled out on one of Kaena Point’s sand beaches — not the jagged, rocky shoreline that typically comprises the area. The soft sandy area made it safe for the team to then remove the hook and trailing fishing line without risking injury or death to Kaikaina, Littnan said.

By contrast, researchers in late May opted not to remove an ulua hook stuck in the lower jaw of an adult male known as Kaena, or RO40, when he showed up at Kaena Point trailing monofilament line.

In that case, the risk that the seal faced in an intervention was too great, Littnan said. The 9-year-old monk seal was able to shake the hook from its lip a week and a half later.

Saturday’s intervention for Kaikaina "shows how rapidly we can respond when the conditions are right," Littnan said. Unless it’s a life-threatening situation, researchers won’t try to subdue a hooked seal that’s hauled out on a rocky shoreline.

The careful protocol began after a female Hawaiian monk seal struck its head and died on a rocky shelf eight years ago in Hanauma Bay in a struggle with researchers who were trying to tag her. The policy aims to avoid such deaths to the endangered species in the future, Littnan said.

Kaikaina’s mother, a North Shore seal known as R5FAY, or Honey Girl, survived a more serious hooking injury in 2012, according to a NOAA release. In that incident, fishing line cut through part of Honey Girl’s tongue, Littnan said.

Researchers found her emaciated, performed life-saving surgery and nursed her back to health, he added.

Unlike the ulua hook that eventually came out of Kaena’s lip, the hook that pierced Kaikaina was lodged deeper and "probably would not have worked itself out any time soon," Littnan said. "It would have caused a fair amount of pain."

Since 1988 there have been 132 reported instances of monk seal hookings in the main Hawaiian Islands, Littnan said. The past five years have seen an average of 13 hookings annually.

A little more than half of the seals hooked in the past five years have managed to lose the hook without intervention, Littnan said. Five have died in that time after swallowing fishhooks.

A number of the hooked seals have turned up at Kaena Point, but researchers can’t say for sure that all of the hookings took place at the popular fishing area, Littnan said.

Furthermore, the hookings are not the most critical threat to the monk seal population and the incidents actually present "a lot of solutions," he added.

It’s not an "us vs. them" situation with local fisherman, Littnan said. The top problem facing monk seals is poor juvenile survival because the mammals are having trouble finding enough food, he said.

NOAA encourages anyone who spots a distressed seal to call its toll-free hotline at 888-256-9840.

———

Star-Advertiser reporter Timothy Hurley contributed to this story.