The endangered Hawaiian monk seal population has reached a milestone, surpassing 1,500 for the first time in more than 20 years.
Researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration this week confirmed that the total estimated seal population for 2021 was 1,570, up from 1,435 in 2019.
The increase marks a turnaround for the marine mammals, which prior to 2013 experienced decades of population decline. At one point their numbers in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands dropped at a rate of more than 4% per year.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Michelle Barbieri, lead scientist of NOAA’s Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program. “It’s been the culmination of many years of monitoring, developing and acting.”
Barbieri credited a hands- on conservation program that actively works to save individual animals, especially adult females that are important to continuing the monk seal population. This includes everything from rescuing malnourished pups to reuniting separated moms and pups, disentangling seals from fishhooks and fishing lines, and relocating them to increase their odds of survival.
Since 2014 the Marine Mammal Center’s Ke Kai Ola, a hospital in Kailua-Kona dedicated to monk seal care, has rehabilitated and released more than 35 animals back to the wild in partnership with NOAA.
The population growth in 2021 was widespread, having increased in both the NWHI within Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument and the main Hawaiian Islands. The current count is nearly 1,200 seals in the former and close to 400 in the latter.
NOAA estimates the monk seal population grew at an average rate of 2% annually from 2013 to 2021, which provides hope for their long-term recovery.
Hawaiian monk seals, or Monachus schauinslandi, are considered one of the most endangered seal species in the world. They are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act and are protected by state and federal laws. To be downlisted to threatened, their population would have to more than double.
The seals face numerous threats, which include intentional harm by humans, fish hookings, diseases such as toxoplasmosis, and loss of habitat due to climate change.
At Papahanaumokuakea, newly weaned pups compete for limited food resources and are vulnerable to predation by sharks. Two low-lying islets at French Frigate Shoals that served as birthing sites were wiped out in 2018, one by erosion and the other by Hurricane Walaka.
Researchers are paying close attention to some concerning trends in the distant islands, including low pup survival rates.
NOAA has monitored the monk seal population for nearly 40 years but had to cancel the 2020 survey in the NWHI due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The count resumed in the summer of 2021 with numbers that confirmed the new milestone.
NOAA staff recently headed back out to conduct this year’s population survey.
“We can’t possibly talk about this without acknowledging the public and partners who are reporting seal sightings,” said Barbieri. “People who report them are helping us as citizen scientists in doing this work. It’s a shared victory across all the growing swell off support we have gotten for the monk seals.”
SEAL SIGHTINGS
During peak pupping season, NOAA reminds the public to be vigilant.
>> Give mom-pup pairs at least 150 feet of distance.
>> Sightings can be reported to NOAA’s marine wildlife hotline at 888-256-9840.
