3/2/2010 Dr. Charles Explains the iKermit

Aloha Everyone from the HMS Research Program:
So the news is out, some special seals in the MHI are receiving some brand new high tech toys. I just wanted to fill everyone in briefly on what we are doing, why we are doing it, and explain why some critters are instrumented and some are not.

1. What the heck are we doing?
The HMSRP has just initiated a multi-year study on MHI seals to better understand their biology and ecology. The most obvious result is that there are going to be several of your most well known seals swimming around with a cellphone GPS dive recorder. In order to instrument the seals we need to catch them with a hoop net on the beach, sedate them, biomedically sample them, and then attach the tag. For each seal handled we learn an incredible amount... which gets us to the why?

2. Why are we instrumenting seals?
It is no secret that one of the most hopeful signs of potential monk seal recovery is the return and growth of monk seals in the MHI. We predict that there will be 3 times as many seals in the next 15 years or so. And that is great, but WHAT DOES IT MEAN? What sort of impacts will that have on the local ecosystems? What will it mean for commercial and recreational fishers? What will it mean for our beach use?

Even more basic questions can be answered like, why are monk seals doing so much better down here??

One comment on yesterdays Kermit blog, asked "why did they instrument kermit. he never goes anywhere". That is true and it isn't. So I think that most of the dedicated volunteers that overlap with Kermit can give me an extremely detailed and accurate list of where Kermit likes to haul out. But where does he go when he disappears? What does he do to make his living? Does he dive in coral reefs at 20 ft or sand flats at 120, or does he chase deepwater species in subphotic depths at 1000 ft?

But when we handle the seals we collect lots of samples to look at the health status of each seal. Any current signs of infection? Any dangerous diseases detected? What are the levels of bio-contaminants in each seal? Then, what are the implications of all of these things.

We have some scientists that merge the tracking with the disease work to see if they can find patterns. Like do seals that spend more time near the Ala Wai have different health profiles than seals that live on Molokai?

All of these questions (and more) are critical to understanding, managing and conserving these seals into the future.

3. So, why do we select the seals we do?
I will tell you that working on monk seals is hard. First, there aren't many of them so your sample size is always small. But more so, we are VERY conservative about when we handle seals. Think a seal might be pregnant, then she won't be handled. Think it might be too hot, skip the seal. Seal going to molt soon, or
just recently molted, we will tag them at a later date. The tags that we are currently using are a little larger so we won't put them on anything smaller than about 200 lbs so many of our little ones are off limits too. But anyone that falls into the narrow window that is left is a prime candidate for this very important work. I guaranteed you that there is a lot left for all of us to learn about these seals.

I probably created more questions than I answered, so if you want to know something more put a comment on this blog and I will try to get back to answer it.

Hope you are well and thanks again to the many volunteers for your hard work and dedication. I would like to give a shout out to the Billands for helping scout out Kermit and help educate the onlookers. You guys are the best.

Thanks and see you on the beaches.
Charles
Lead Scientist, Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program