Endangered monk seal makes fast, long journey across Hawaii
COURTESY HAWAII DEPT. OF LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES
A 6-year-old endangered Hawaiian monk seal rests on the beach in Waialua on Saturday. Researchers say the monk seal made an exceptionally fast and long swim across the archipelago. The female seal made her way from Kure Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands to Oahu’s North Shore, a trip of about 1,300 miles. She made the grueling swim in only a month.
Researchers are taking note of an epic, 1,300-mile swim by a Hawaiian monk seal from Kure Atoll — the northernmost island of Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument — to Oahu in about a month.
Monk seal KG54, a 6-year-old female seal, made the swim, according to the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, and hauled out at Kaena Point State Park on Oahu’s North Shore on Wednesday.
Researchers are aware that the seals travel between the Northwestern and main Hawaiian islands, but said the journeys usually take several years.
A 2015 study that looked at seal movements over a 30-year period found seals moved mostly between neighboring islands, but not long distances, according to Dr. Michelle Barbieri, program lead for NOAA’s Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program.
Travel of up to about 250 miles between islands by the seals is more common.
“We have data that shows at least 10 seals have made at least 14 different trips between the main Hawaiian Islands, the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, and Johnston Atoll between 1981-2011 and since then, there have been several more,” Barbieri said in a news release. “What’s impressive about KG54 is she made the trip in about a month, where other seals are more likely to make it over the course of several years.”
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Lesley Macpherson, an interpretive technician at Kaena Point State Park, said she could tell KG54 was not a mainland seal by her gray instead of red flipper tag. The fact that KG54 swam “so far, so quickly, all by herself” is amazing, she said, and she has been nicknamed Huaka‘i, which means traveler, journey, or path taken.
While resting on shore, she has been joined by fellow monk seals.
Researchers believe KG54 left Kure about mid-August, but do not know her molt status or the exact reason for her thinner appearance, Barbieri said.
There are about 1,400 monk seals left in the wild with about 1,100 living in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
Monk seals undergo a “catastrophic molt” about once a year, shedding the top layer of their skin and fur to get rid of algae, which is replaced with a new, silvery coat. The process can take one to two weeks while the seal rests on shore, according to NOAA, and usually results in weight loss.
“It seems reasonable that she expended a lot of energy coming to Oahu,” said Barbieri. “However, some seals from the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands can be thinner than those born in the main islands, so it’s probably a combination of both factors.”
Hawaiian monk seals are a critically endangered species protected by federal and state laws. Sightings of monk seals can be reported to NOAA’s hotline at (888) 256-9840.
