Hawaii Vacations Blog - Hawaii Travel by a Hawaii Expert!

A couple of weeks ago I started hearing from neighbors and friends on the North Shore that a Hawaiian Monk Seal had been making an appearance on the nearby beaches.  I got so excited because I am passionate about Hawaii’s animals – especially the Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle, the Hawaiian Monk Seal, & the Hawaiian Owl.  I can guarantee you that I will write about all three at some time or another on this blog. 

Getting back to the Hawaiian Monk Seal… 

I started walking the nearby beaches everyday with my camera in tow hoping to see the Monk Seal.  About two days ago I got my wish.  I was walking at Rockpiles on the North Shore and there she was basking in the sun and I’d like to share some of my pictures from that special day with you…  Enjoy!

Hawaiian monk seals are endangered.  Only 2 species of monk seals survive in the world today. One lives in the remote areas of the Mediterranean Sea, and the other lives in the Leeward chain of the Hawaiian Islands. A third species used to inhabit the Caribbean, but was forced to extinction in the 1950s by the increased human use of the seal’s habitat.

The Hawaiian monk seal population is about 1,200 worldwide, the lowest ever recorded.  And if nothing is done, experts say, its population could decline to fewer than 1,000 in the next three years.  Currently, a monk seal pup has less than a 20 percent chance of reaching reproductive age.  The population decline over the past two decades can be attributed to a number of factors, including limited food, entanglement of seals in marine debris, shark predation and human interaction.

Many believe monk seals got their name from their monk-like preference for solitude; others think that the loose skin around the seals’ neck resembles the hood of a monk’s robe. Ancient Hawaiians apparently thought neither and named the seal Ilio-holo-i-ka-uaua, which means "dog that runs in rough waters," referring somewhat back to their ancestral history. Monk seals are also sometimes referred to as "living fossils" because as the oldest living members of the pinniped order they have remained virtually unchanged for 15 million years.