Seal dies after operation to extract a barbed hook

Federal officials are encouraging the use of barbless circle hooks and J hooks when fishing in Hawaii waters after the death of an 8-month-old endangered monk seal.

The seal, known by marine volunteers as Ola Loa, died Monday night following surgery to remove a barbed circle hook at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Inouye Regional Center on Ford Island.

Barbed circle hooks and J hooks are often used in shoreline fishing.

“That barb causes so much trouble. … It just anchors in and tears,” Charles Littnan, lead scientist for the Hawaiian Monk Seal Program, said Tuesday.

Littnan said people have the misconception that without the barb on a hook, they’ll loose fish. But many have been able to catch ulua with a circle hook that has no barb, he said.

Federal officials said using pliers to crimp or flatten the barb of a hook can help make it easier to remove from Hawaiian monk seals and turtles who come upon them.

“It’s probably one of the important things we can do in collaboration with fishermen,” Littnan said.

Littnan said there have been 143 hookings of Hawaiian monk seals in the last 40 years. There are now between seven and 12 hookings annually as the number of monk seals increases in the main Hawaiian Islands.

He said that, of the 143 incidents, 14 hooks were ingested into the throat or stomach — resulting in seven deaths.

The death on Monday was the first following surgery that Littnan said he was aware of in his 13 years of experience.

Ola Loa was born on Feb. 25 on the North Shore by the monk seal known as Honey Girl, who has given birth to a total of nine pups, federal officials said.

Ola Loa was seen in the Turtle Bay area with several feet of fishing line trailing from her mouth on Dec. 17.

Federal officials, teams of volunteers and Monk Seal Foundation members searched for Ola Loa and found her Sunday morning near Kahuku Point.

They determined the hook was either in her throat or stomach, and captured and transported her to Ford Island, where X-rays found a circle hook was embedded in the back of her throat.

Officials with NOAA said surgery was difficult because of the position and size of the hook, scar tissue, and the relatively small size of the seal.

Ola Loa went into shock shortly after the surgery, which took several hours, officials said.

The total Hawaiian monk seal population in both the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and the main Hawaiian Islands has been declining, to 1,100 to 1,200 this year from between 1,500 and 1,600 about 10 years ago, officials said.

While lower food availability and competition with other predators have led to lower numbers in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, the population has been increasing by about 5 percent a year in the main islands.