Rescuing Endangered Hawaiian Monk Seals — By Moving Them To The City
Here’s one that might throw you for a loop: When it comes to the endangered Hawaiian monk seal, city-bred pups are outliving their cousins raised in a marine preserve.
Federal biologist say only one in five pups born in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, northwest of the Hawaiian Islands, lives to adulthood. But their cousins born in the main Hawaiian Islands have a greater than 80 per cent chance of surviving.
This finding has led biologists to propose a somewhat unorthodox plan to help save the critically endangered species from extinction: taking pups from isolated atolls where they’re born and moving them closer to Honolulu and other highly populated areas, the Associated Press reports. Scientists say there are fewer sharks and less competition for pups learning to forage for food near the main Hawaiian Islands.
Scientists hope this idea will help save a species that is declining at a rate of 4 per cent each year. But the idea doesn’t sit well with fishermen who don’t want hungry seals eating their bait and accidentally getting caught in their nets and lines.
The Hawaiian monk seal population has dwindled from about 15,000 to a modern population of around 1,100.
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