Hawaiian monk seals make a comeback
The population of the endangered mammals has surpassed a level not seen in 20 years.
HONOLULU — The population of endangered Hawaiian monk seals has surpassed a level not seen in more than two decades, according to federal officials.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials last week said the seal population has steadily increased over the last two years.
Officials estimated that the seal population from 2019 to 2021 grew by more than 100, bringing the total from 1,435 to 1,570.
Monk seals live only in Hawaii, including in the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, where most of them are found.
The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are within the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, the largest protected marine area in the United States and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Michelle Barbieri, the lead scientist at NOAA’s Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program, said the count shows that conservation efforts have been helping. The group travels across the archipelago to provide treatment and rescue to animals in trouble.
“We are out there ourselves and working with partners to conduct lifesaving interventions for seals, prioritizing females, which are going to go on to create the future generation of seals,” Barbieri said. “We’re starting to really see that continued payoff of intervening to save animals’ lives.”
NOAA has monitored the monk seal population for almost 40 years. The agency said this is the first time the population has surpassed 1,500 in more than 20 years.
The animals are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act and as depleted under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
Officials said that while the trend is promising, concerns remain about survivability as the low-lying islands and atolls where the seals live are threatened by rising sea levels associated with climate change.
Some islands in the region are only a couple of feet above sea level.
“Climate change is definitely something that we’re really worried about,” Barbieri said.
“We’re really seeing those impacts; we’re living it now. And it has real ramifications for survival for seals.”
The islets of French Frigate Shoals are home to about 20% of the monk seals in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and for a long time hosted the species’ largest subpopulation.
The land mass there has shrunk for decades, with some of the islands disappearing entirely.
Whale-Skate, Trig and East islands have all washed away. Whale-Skate and Trig were lost to erosion; East Island was wiped out by Hurricane Walaka in 2018.
Terrestrial habitat loss is just one of the problems facing the seal population. The animals often become entangled in fishing nets and other marine debris or ingest fishing hooks, and some are targeted and killed by humans.
Monk seal populations declined for decades before the population began to recover in 2013.
Barbieri said the animals not only play a critical role in the food chain but are an indicator of the overall health of the ocean.
“If we have healthy monk seals,” Barbieri said, “we know that the ecosystem that is supporting those animals is healthy and thriving.”