A woman swimming in Waikiki waters on Sunday morning, July 24, near the roped-off section of the beach, was injured after a nursing Hawaiian monk seal attacked her in an attempt to protect her two-week-old pup.
State officials stated that the woman would not be fined after the unfortunate encounter with the endangered species citing that the 60-year-old swimmer from California was in the "wrong place at the wrong time" and that she did nothing to provoke the monk seal. Experts remind the public to always keep a 50 feet distance between them and the monk seals and 150 feet from the pup with its mother.
Monk Seal Attacking A Woman Captured in A Video
Around 8:30 AM on Sunday, onlookers saw a terrified woman swimming close to a nursing Hawaiian monk seal named Rocky and her pup off Kaimana Beach. The incident was captured in a video provided to the local news outlet Honolulu Star-Advertiser, showing Rocky, who appears to confront the woman while onlookers watch, gasp, and yell at her to get out of the water.
A boat then goes to the woman to assist her to the shore before two men pick her up and carry her to safety. Markus Faigie, a local in Honolulu, told Hawaii News Now that the woman was terrified by the incident as they hear her screaming. While another local also said that the woman was lucky that guy kayaked toward her to save her, or else she would have been in worse trouble.
According to a Facebook post by Hawaii Marine Animal Response (HMAR), the swimmer was wounded after the incident and the City & Country EMS transported her immediately to the hospital for further medical assistance.
Larry Akiyama, a local and regular at the beach, told news outlet KHON2 that he noticed people would only cross the fenced area erected to protect Rocky and her pup. Hawaiian monk seals are like humans that take nine months to gestate. The mother will take care of their pup for six weeks and tend to be protective of them without leaving the pup at all.
These endangered species are federally and state protected with laws passed for their conservation. Violations of these restrictions could lead to a maximum fine of $50,000.
The Most Endangered Seal Species in the World
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Hawaiian monk seal is one of the most endangered seal species in the world, with an overall population of only one-third of its historical population as they have been declining in the past 60 years. But through the recovery efforts of NOAA Fisheries, their number has slowly increased.
Hawaiian monk seals are found in Hawaii and are endemic to the archipelago. They are protected under laws advocating their conservation, such as the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and the State of Hawai'i law.
Rocky has been one of the most famous Hawaiian monk seals since 2017, when she gave birth to a pup on a busy beach in Waikiki on the island of Oʻahu.
For now, there are 1,570 monk seals in Hawaii, of which an estimated 1,200 of them are in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and the rest of 400 seals are in the main Hawaiian Islands. The decline in their population is attributed to many factors, but low juvenile survival is more likely related to inadequate prey availability, which has been a problem for 25 years.
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