Some History of the Hawaiian Monk Seal

Aloha Good People;

The following information was written by Thea Johanos of NOAAs PIFSC. She was responding to a question from a volunteer on Molokai.... and she refers to two papers. I have a copy of the PDF file if anyone is interested in the complete paper.

ENJOY!

Hi All,
Because of public perceptions that the Hawaiian monk seal doesn't belong here, our Molokai volunteers asked for information that might be helpful in countering this belief. Below is the reply that I sent them, which you might also find interesting or helpful.
Cheers,Thea ----------------

I'm attaching papers on monk seals that includes information on early recorded sightings of monk seals in the main islands and how long they have been here. The bottom line is that the ancestors of the Hawaiian monk seals arrived 15 million years ago at a time when the current main islands weren't even formed yet, and are one of only two endemic species of mammals in Hawaii (meaning that the species originated/evolved here and is found nowhere else). The other endemic mammal is a hoary bat. Monk seals are fully capable of swimming among the various islands in the archipelago and there is no reason why they wouldn't have been in the main islands before human arrival 1500-1600 years ago. At the time of human arrival (bringing dogs, etc.) there were many endemic birds such as flightless geese that quickly went extinct and are not represented in chants. Monk seals likely were quickly decimated and stopped reproducing in the main islands because of the vulnerability of mother/pup pairs that spend 6 weeks near one spot on the beach. Still, monk seals continued to visit the main islands on rare occasions. Though these visits were not well documented, the paper by Kenyon and Rice lists some sightings from the early 20th century. Below, I've included a summary that I wrote this summer on recent movements of monk seals:

Although infrequent, interatoll movements of Hawaiian monk seals have been documented between the major breeding locations in Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) and other areas within their known breeding range. Necker and Nihoa are geographically intermediate between the NWHI and the Main Hawaiian Islands (MHI), and most movements of monk seals summarized here are between Necker and Nihoa and French Frigate Shoals (FFS), the nearest major monk seal breeding location to the west, within the NWHI. There are also a small number of documented trips between Necker and Nihoa Islands and the MHI. In a few cases, seals may have traveled directly between the NWHI and the MHI or Johnston Atoll without an intermediate visit to Necker or Nihoa Islands.

In total, 58 seals are documented to have made 107 trips between the major subpopulations in the NWHI, Necker and Nihoa Islands, the MHI, and Johnston Atoll in 1983-2007. This is a minimum number of trips as we have had little observation and tagging effort at Necker and Nihoa Islands, and have virtually no sighting information from Niihau, the island within the MHI with the largest seal population, which is also geographically closest to the NWHI. Many seals made one or more round trips between FFS and Necker or Nihoa Islands, with one male making three round trips between FFS and Necker. One noteworthy male, born at Laysan Island, traveled to FFS and on to Nihoa and Kauai as a subadult and finally returned to FFS as an adult. And, a juvenile male, born at FFS, was resighted off Hawaii Island, sick and injured, and was brought into permanent captivity. Finally, an adult male, originally identified and translocated from Laysan to the MHI, made two round trips from the MHI to Nihoa, returning each time to the MHI. Several adult females have also made noteworthy trips. One seal, born at Midway Atoll, first traveled to Laysan and then on to the MHI where she was first seen on Molokai. She subsequently became the first monk seal known to have pupped on the Island of Hawaii. Another adult female, born at FFS, traveled to Johnston Atoll and remained there for about a year before disappearing. Finally, an adult female first identified on Kauai has been resighted at FFS.

Since the MHI paper was written, I've also heard that there is a paper that mentions finding monk seal bones in ancient Hawaiian middens but I don't have the paper. If I find it, I'll send that along too. Becauseof the size, I didn't include the whole Kenyon and Rice paper. Good luck in your outreach!

Best always,Thea