Injured seal flown to O'ahu for treatment
Advertiser Staff
Coast Guard photo
The Coast Guard yesterday airlifted an injured monk seal from Kaua'i to O'ahu, where federal marine mammal experts were trying to determine if surgery will be required to find and remove a fish hook lodged in its mouth.
An injured monk seal was airlifted yesterday from Kaua'i to O'ahu. The 500-pound male will be examined by marine mammal experts.
"Fishing hooks can penetrate and cause life-threatening organ damage," said Robert Braun, the lead veterinarian evaluating the seal.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also was asking for the public's help in reporting the whereabouts of a second monk seal injured by a hook. That seal, a sub-adult, was last seen last week near Po'ipu on Kaua'i's south shore.
The first seal, a 500-pound adult male, was first seen June 4 near Kapa'a with fishing line trailing from its mouth, NOAA said. Officials from NOAA Fisheries and the state Division of Aquatic Resources, along with volunteers, captured the seal Thursday after it came ashore to rest near Waimea.
Tracking the seal was possible because scientists earlier this year attached a satellite tracking tag to it for a study on the health of monk seals in the Hawaiian Islands, NOAA said.
Federal officials ask people to report injured marine mammals to the NOAA Fisheries 24-hour hotline, (888) 256-9840.
Veterinarians removed 15 feet of fishing line and a leader from its mouth, but the hook was not visible and X-rays were planned to try to find it.
Mammal hotline
Margaret Akamine, a NOAA Fisheries program analyst, said the public can help in such cases by cutting fishing line as short as possible and calling the NOAA hotline when animals in distress are spotted.
