HONOLULU — A Hawaiian monk seal removed from the wild because he was attacking fellow monk seals pups is moving to the mainland, the Associated Press reported Friday. KE18 left Hawai‘i Thursday for a marine laboratory at the University of
HONOLULU — A Hawaiian monk seal removed from the wild because he was attacking fellow monk seals pups is moving to the mainland, the Associated Press reported Friday.
KE18 left Hawai‘i Thursday for a marine laboratory at the University of California-Santa Cruz.
The monk seal wounded 10 of the 13 pups born at Kure Atoll last year, and is believed to have killed at least two pups, according to AP.
Worried about the steady declining of the endangered species, which could potentially lead to the species’ extinction, federal officials decided to “lethally remove” the KE18 in August.
But when a crew from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed up at Kure Atoll aboard a research boat to kill KE18, he disappeared.
“We spotted KE18 three times but were never able to get an opportunity to capture him,” said in August Charles Littnan, head of the Hawaiian monk seal research program at NOAA. “It is possible that he had gone out to sea to forage.”
Kure Atoll has three islands, plus a vast amount of emergent reef, making it a “pretty wide area” to search, he said in August.
Out of time, the research boat left to pick up the remainder of NOAA’s field staff stationed on other islands.
A couple months ago KE18 was finally captured at Midway Atoll, about 55 miles southwest of Kure Atoll. Instead of being killed, he was captured alive and sent to Waikiki Aquarium.
The option of sending him to the aquarium was discarded in August due to lack of space, Federal officials said. But since after KE18 eluded the NOAA crew space became available at the aquarium.
KE18 left Hawai‘i Thursday for a marine laboratory at the University of California-Santa Cruz, AP reports.
NOAA officials say scientists will study KE18 to better understand the endangered species and why its population is declining 4 percent per year.
There are currently an estimated 1,100 Hawaiian monk seals left in the world.
KE18 is expected to move back to Hawai‘i in about two years.
