MAHA’ULEPU — Less than a week old, Kaua’i’s newest member of the endangered Hawaiian monk seal population appears to be thriving. No one knows yet if it’s a male or a female, but the pup and its mother seemed healthy
MAHA’ULEPU — Less than a week old, Kaua’i’s newest member of the endangered
Hawaiian monk seal population appears to be thriving.
No one knows yet if
it’s a male or a female, but the pup and its mother seemed healthy and at ease
yesterday on the beach at Maha’ulepu where the birth occurred between last
Sunday night and Monday morning.
Brad Ryon, a member of National Marine
Fisheries Services’ monk seal program, said the seals have been undisturbed
despite using the public beach as their temporary home. Officials have placed
barriers at opposite ends of the narrow beach to keep people and their pets at
a distance, and a fisheries service employee is keeping watch during daylight,
Ryon said.
The beach, where a gated entrance is closed between 7 p.m. and 7
a.m., is less accessible than the one at Po’ipu Beach Park where another monk
seal pup, this one about five weeks old, is living with its mother.
Nevertheless, having two pups for fisheries service officials and volunteers to
keep track of is both exciting and stressful, Ryon said.
“People like to
let their dogs run at Maha’ulepu, and we have to keep the animals away from the
seals. Dogs could spread a disease that would wipe out the seal population,” he
explained.
The monk seal population of Kaua’i, once nearly eliminated, is
up to 14 since the latest birth.
Seal pups and their mothers normally
separate after the pups are six weeks old.
Editor Pat Jenkins can be
reached at 245-3681 (ext. 227) or pjenkins@pulitzer.net
