Diving with Hawaiian Monk Seal
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- Опубликовано: 7 сен 2024
- Scuba diving on the west side of Maui. We set out from shore, started our dive once it reached about 15ft of water. Not too much later, a Hawaiian monk seal began to follow us! She was quite interested in our safety flag at the surface. A couple of times, she swam close to us and even bit at my left fin a few times! They were very gentle bites, almost as if she was curious and testing to see what the material was.
Hawaiian monk seals are highly endangered. Total population estimate is about 1,100 to 1,200 or so, with most of this population taking residence across the vast northwestern portion of the Hawaiian archipelago. Within the eight 'main' islands, it's thought that there are no more than 200 monk seals. Many individuals are marked and observed, in an attempt to help preserve this species. As you might notice at times, this seal was marked "L6".
It is important to emphasize that if you ever do come across a monk seal, they are a protected species. You should give them space and not approach. During this dive, there were several times that we tried to ditch the seal and get away, but she kept following us. The problem here is that certain seals become too accustomed to humans, and this can lead to aggression and/or dependance. As best as possible, these animals need to be left to live their natural lifestyle, free of human interference.
We saw the same seal today snorkeling in Olowalu. She was very inquisitive, but we still kept our distance.
Awesome video! I just saw a monk seal resting on the beach on Kauai this past weekend, and it was the highlight of my trip. Good thing she only nipped at your fin and not your body as they have super-sharp teeth. Thanks for sharing.
Don Mcleish & Robert Pasqua were there with our surf skis when this video was taken. She approached us, while we were straddling our boards & came up to me & put her flipper on my fin, as if to rest & then went over to Don's board & slid under it & rubbed her back on it & then spotted the two divers below us & as you can see in the video, just wanted to play!
NOAA's program of bleach marking, trans locating, and otherwise "helping" the critically endangered monk seal has been extremely detrimental to the species. Three thousand individuals in the fifties have been reduced to eleven hundred today. Currently NOAA reports 156 seals in the main Hawaiian Island. Most of these stem from a few productive females birthing on Molokai. Part of their natural lifestyle is to interact with humans. Great documentation of monk seal behavior. Aloha Dr. L
Unfortunately she became even more inclined to interact with people and from what I gather, some folks feed and petted her which didn't help one bit. Ultimately she was relocated to the western islands because she became too great a threat to people and presumably herself.