Protective mother may need wider berth Since most of the births of the endangered Hawaiian monk seals take place on beaches of the sparsely populated Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, reports of nursing mothers being aggressive toward humans are rare. Sunday at
Protective mother may need wider berth
Since most of the births of the endangered Hawaiian monk seals take place on beaches of the sparsely populated Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, reports of nursing mothers being aggressive toward humans are rare.
Sunday at Po’ipu Beach Park, though, a snorkeling Texas man made a painful discovery while also making history of sorts. The visitor is believed to be the first person ever attacked by a monk seal believed to be protecting her newborn pup.
Though the “attack,” in which the seal nipped the rear end of the visitor, didn’t last more than a few seconds or cause serious injuries, it is the subject of a National Marine Fisheries Service investigation. And in a conference call yesterday, Kaua’i County and NMFS officials discussed potential extra precautions to ensure the safety and protection of the animals and humans, said Delores Clark, an NMFS spokeswoman.
The Texas visitor was treated at Wilcox Memorial Hospital and released Sunday, according to hospital spokeswoman Lani Yukimura.
Hawaiian monk seals carry parasites, so being the victim of an attack can expose a victim to diseases, Clark said.
No tetanus shot was administered to the Texas visitor at the hospital, Yukimura said.
The mother seal and pup yesterday continued their normal behavior at the county beach park.
Probably the biggest post-attack worry is that the mother would abandon the pup, as monk seal mothers have been known to do after human interference, intentional or otherwise.
“These are fairly new events,” said Don Heacock, aquatic biologist with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.
The mother “never had anything like this happen last year,” when she also made Po’ipu Beach Park her maternity ward for the birth and early childhood of another pup, Heacock said. “Maybe she’s older and a little more cautious about people even being 50 feet from her offspring.
“This wasn’t a vicious attack on the guy, but probably analogous to a female dog with her puppy. Some dogs are very protective,” he continued. “This mother obviously is very protective of her offspring.
“This guy wasn’t harassing the seals, but apparently the mother felt he was too close. That was her way of telling the guy he’s too close, as far as we can ascertain. It would get your attention to have a 600-pound seal come swimming 30 miles an hour after you under water.”
As a result of the incident, the safety zone in the water around where mother and pup rest on the beach at the park has been doubled by officials, to about 100 feet.
“We’re hoping that will solve the problem. We’re trying to increase that distance, that margin of safety, and yet at the same time still allow people to go into the water and do it as safely as possible,” said Heacock.
Lifeguards Sunday also closed to swimming the entire park. It was reopened Monday.
“The mother is taking the baby in the water a lot now and teaching it how to swim, and for some reason she interpreted this swimmer as a potential threat to her offspring,” Heacock said. “Now, again, every time we go in the water we do that at our own risk.”
Monk seals aren’t normally aggressive, except mothers protecting their young and males vying for the attention of females, he added.
“So we’ve got to be a little more cognizant about where we are in relationship to some of these other animals when we go into the ocean,” he concluded.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
