LIHU‘E — A ceremony in memory of two Hawaiian monk seals shot to death in April and May on Kaua‘i will be held this morning at Po‘ipu Beach Park. The Hawaiian service will begin at 9:30 a.m. and include the
LIHU‘E — A ceremony in memory of two Hawaiian monk seals shot to death in April and May on Kaua‘i will be held this morning at Po‘ipu Beach Park.
The Hawaiian service will begin at 9:30 a.m. and include the release of the seals’ ashes and a ceremony conducted by Kumu Sabra Kauka, a Kaua‘i native practitioner.
The state Department of Land and Natural Resources, along with NOAA Fisheries Service and the Hawaiian Monk Seal Conservation, will be acknowledging the monk seal and its importance in the “whole realm” of life, Kauka said in an interview Wednesday.
Kauka has been serving in an advisory capacity as a cultural practitioner for NOAA and has vast knowledge of the Hawaiian culture.
“They (the monk seals) have been on these islands longer than we have and have been in this ocean longer than we have,” she said. “They have every bit as much right to live on this earth as we do.”
The memorial service will also pay tribute to the volunteers and others in the community who assist in caring for the critically endangered species, said Jeffrey Walters, DLNR marine mammal response coordinator.
“The volunteers are always out there helping,” he said.
Each seal is individually known by staff and volunteers. They are all given ID tags and have their own personal characteristics and behaviors, he added.
The two monk seals’ whose lives are being recognized today were known as RK19 and RK06.
RK19 was the 5-year-old subadult male seal discovered dead in April at Kaumakani on the Westside. The otherwise healthy seal was observed alive just a day earlier during the Fisheries Service’s semi-annual Hawaiian monk seal count, according to a DLNR press release.
In 2008, RK19 was reportedly fitted with a crittercam as part of a Main Hawaiian Islands foraging study conducted by the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center.
RK06 was the female monk seal, possibly in her mid-teens, found dead in May at Pila‘a beach on the North Shore. A necropsy revealed the seal was carrying a near term — almost ready to be birthed — male monk seal pup, according to the same release.
She previously had five pups and was an important breeding female and a huge loss for the Main Hawaiian Islands monk seal population, the release said.
The Fisheries Service’s Pacific Islands Regional Office staff has officially confirmed that the cause of death for both animals was the result of shooting.
NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement is actively investigating both cases.
The ceremony is expected to conclude between 10 and 10:30 a.m.
For coverage of the event, see Friday’s edition of The Garden Island.
