The Garden Island newspaper on Kauai is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever recently killed a young monk seal on the island.

The pup was found apparently bludgeoned to death on Nov. 30 on an Anahola beach.

This was at least the fifth killing of a monk seal in recent years. Authorities have had a hard time deterring monk seal killings, which many people believe illustrate an environmental pushback from local fisherman and others who see the endangered and federally protected seals as a threat to their livelihoods and communities. The seals have been showing up more and more in the main Hawaiian Islands as ecosystem changes force them to search for new feeding grounds.

A Kauai man was convicted a few years ago of shooting a monk seal. But his conviction 鈥� the only one in Hawaii for a monk seal death 鈥� came with a $25 fine and three months in jail, nowhere close to the the potential penalty of $50,000 and five years in prison.

In May 2012, a Molokai man confessed to the New York Times he had killed a monk seal. The story, published in the popular Sunday magazine, was widely read nationally but federal law enforcement officials in Hawaii were hesitant to pursue the case, saying the close-knit Molokai community was likely handling it on its own.

Now, the Garden Island joins environmental groups who are also offering a $10,000 reward, bringing the total to $20,000 to whoever steps forward with credible information.

“It鈥檚 not usually a newspaper鈥檚 duty to take the lead in offering reward money for information that leads to an arrest, but in this case, we want justice,” the paper wrote Saturday in an unsigned editorial. “A deep respect for the natural world and environment is deeply rooted in the Hawaiian culture and we seek to help perpetuate that respect.”

Read the newspaper’s .

A monk seal sleeps at Kaena Point on Oahu.

Nathan Eagle/Civil Beat