Seal pup’s world will collide with festival

PO’IPU- What happens when you combine an endangered species habitat and a

large-scale surfing festival on one beach?

That’s something that federal

biologists and volunteers who have been monitoring the newly born Hawaiian monk

seal pup on Po’ipu Beach Park would rather not find out.

But in less than

two weeks, the Koloa Plantation Days Ocean Festival will bring 500 canoers,

swimmers, surfers and an estimated crowd of 1,500 to the park.

“Noise,

lights, people- that all can strain the relationship or cause the animal to

move out of the area to another, more hazardous area,” said Bradley Ryon, a

member of National Marine Fisheries Service’s Hawaiian Monk Seal

Program.

Curt Smith, an organizer of the festival, said he’s been working

with the fisheries service on a plan so that both man and monk seal can coexist

peacefully during the big to-do.

“We came up with a compromise where,

depending on where the seal ends up, we’ll go to the other side,” he said.

So far, the pup and its mother have stayed mostly in the small, sheltered

pool to the east side of the beach, which is divided by a small spit of sand.

That side, where the pup was born two weeks ago, is ideal for it to nurse,

play and grow, biologists said.

“That beach is extra safe in the kiddie

pool, it’s safe from sharks and protected by the surf,” Ryon said.

To the

west, toward the Waiohai Hotel, the beach becomes narrower and more

exposed.

Biologists and volunteers put an orange barrier across the spit

so that the seals wouldn’t swim to the other side during high tide.

They

are fearful that too much human interference will cause the mother to bolt,

leaving the pup on its own. At first, the fisheries service asked the

organizers of the Ocean Festival to postpone the event, which is scheduled for

the Saturday and Sunday of July 29-30.

“If it is not postponed, the extra

traffic poses potential problems, including the mom-pup separation which could

lead to the death of the animal,” Ryon said.

But putting off the major

yearly event was one thing organizers didn’t want to do.

“It’s not

something where we just can pick up and go,” Smith said, adding that the Ocean

Festival is an integral part of the Koloa Plantation Days Celebration going on

that week.

He said that last year they were able to send 30 kids from

Kaua’i to the state surfing championships.

“It’s all non-profit. All the

money goes to the kids,” he said.

While they weren’t willing to move the

time, the festival organizers did agree to move the main tent where the awards

banquet will take place from the beach area to behind the dirt parking lot,

Smith said.

This still may not be enough to shelter the pup from the noise,

said Barbara Frazier, volunteer coordinator of the Kaua’i Monk Seal Watch

Program. Its mother “will abandon the baby if there’s too much ruckus- that’s

what we are worried about happening in two weeks,” Frazier said.

“This

band and everything, and the people—what if it’s too much?” she

added.

She said volunteers are prepared to mobilize if the event gets too

rowdy.

“We’ll be there if we need to calm the crowds to be a little

quieter,” she said.

Frazier said the volunteers may hand out brochures

about the monk seal to educate the festival-goers.

“As long as the public

is aware of the enormity of the situation,” she said.

The first six weeks

of the pup’s life are the most dangerous, since it can’t feed itself. Over this

period, the pup will gain over 100 pounds, while the mother will lose about 200

pounds as it nurses. After the pup is weaned, the mother will leave it to fend

for itself.

The mother, Frazier said, has been allowing its pup to roam

farther out each day, causing the volunteers and fisheries service personnel to

widen the perimeter of fencing around the creatures.

Federal biologists

have also closed Po’ipu Bay o swimmers and snorkelers. Swimming is still

permitted on the Waiohai side of the beach. Dogs, however, have been banned

from the beach.

Volunteers—about half residents and half tourists—are

signing on to watch the seals and keep the curiosity seekers from getting too

close, Frazier said.

“So far we are doing fine. But if we keep extending

the beach back and people keep coming, then we might have to add more

volunteers,” she said.

The beach has been packed solid, Frazier said. Aside

from the human visitors, a male monk seal made quite a commotion when it came

into the bay Friday and attempted to breed unsuccessfully with the mother.

“As soon as a seal beaches itself, it’s just like, shwoom! I’m not

exaggerating, there’ll be 50 to 100 people on top of the seal,” she

said.

Another problem that is persisting, volunteers say, is the constant

barrage of night-time picture snapping.

“With all the flashes, it looked

like a bunch of paparazzi,” said one volunteer. Excessive flashes once caused

the mother to stop feeding and head for the water, Ryon said.

There are

upward of 1,400 Hawaiian monk seals left in the Hawaiian Islands, and right now

the population is stable. Most of the seals live in the remote Northwestern

Hawaiian Islands, while upward of 12 live on Kaua’i.

Not many of those get

as close to humans as this pup and its mother, who chose one of the most

popular beaches in Hawai’i to give birth. That’s humanity’s chance to prove its

ability at stewardship, Frazier said.

“We’re providing a loving, sacred

surrounding for this little animal, and people are just thrilled to death to do

that,” she said.

Those who are interested in volunteering can call

335-0941.

Deputy editor Brandon Sprague can be reached at 245-3681 (ext.

226) or bsprague@pulitzer.net