Friendly seal moved to isolated waters

By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Staff Writer

A frisky Hawaiian monk seal was moved from Kealakekua Bay on the Big Island after its playful antics became a danger to swimmers, federal marine fisheries officials said yesterday.

Close interaction with people, as displayed in this photo taken Sunday, led to the transfer of a 2 1/2-year-old Hawaiian monk seal from Kealakekua Bay to waters closer to its birthplace. The seal also was fitted with a satellite transmitter. Photo courtesy NOAA Fisheries

With the transmitter hookup, the seal's activities can be monitored as part of a federally financed study to learn more about the behavior and health of the endangered Hawaiian monk seals that ply the waters of the main Hawaiian Islands.

For the study, selected seals will be fitted with satellite transmitters allowing scientists to track location and dive patterns.

Accounts of a friendly seal interacting with curious tourists were reported last week, officials said. But late Friday, an eyewitness told authorities that people at Kealakekua Bay were being "nipped and groped" as the seal made contact with swimmers with its teeth and strong flippers.

Although such behavior is normal for a seal, it becomes a potential danger when played out with humans, said Brad Ryon, a National Marine Fisheries Service biologist. "If the seal was to remain in the wild, it had to be separated from humans," Ryon said.

The fisheries service worked with state conservation officers and operators of Fair Wind Cruises to capture and move the seal, which has been known as RM34 to marine scientists who said its birth was the first documented pupping of a Hawaiian monk seal on the Big Island.

Ryon said the first satellite data show that the seal swam to the east after being moved and is closer to its birth area. He declined to pinpoint its location was because he doesn't want people to seek out the seal.

RM34 is one of about 1,200 to 1,400 Hawaiian monk seals in the world, most of them found in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. In recent years, increasing numbers have been found around the main islands.

Federal officials moved seal pups away from Kaua'i's Po'ipu Beach in 2001 and 2000 to avoid interaction with humans. In the latter instance, the pups' mother bit a swimmer. Six months ago, a group of seals used the same beach, but moving them never became necessary, Ryon said.

Hawaiian monk seal research has focused on the northwestern chain and little is known about the same species in the main islands, said Bud Antonelis, chief of the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, Protected Species Division, in Honolulu.

Employing satellite-tracking methods, the new study will provide information about monk seal health, exposure to endemic diseases, foraging ecology and habitat use.

A presentation on the study will be made from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Waikiki Aquarium.

Scientists, including marine mammal veterinarian Bob Braun, initially plan to attach transmitters on 10 seals across the state, then to four more.

Antonelis said RM34 could have been a candidate to become one of the primary subjects of the study, but its recent brush with humans ended that prospect.

Even so, he said, Monday's health evaluation will yield useful information. The seal's satellite transmitter also will produce data on dive depths and duration.

Reach Timothy Hurley at (808) 244-4880 or thurley@honoluluadvertiser.com.