What to do if monk seal mom attacks

By now, it’s common knowledge that by law people are required to stay at least 50 yards away from any endangered Hawaiian monk seal.

Those harassing or disturbing a Hawaiian monk seal are guilty of a federal crime. Penalties upon conviction include fines of $25,000 or more, and up to five years imprisonment.

But it’s also likely that the monk seals don’t know the finer points of the federal legislation designed to protect them, nor that they are considered by two-legged mammals to be some of the most endangered species on the planet.

So, would you be in violation of federal law and subject to penalties if you found yourself eyeball to eyeball with a monk seal and feared for your safety, or that of your family, and defended yourself and family against the critter?

It’s a hypothetical question Dr. Jeff Walters of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources would rather not address.

“The key is to prevent that from happening,” he said.

But Delores Clark, public affairs officer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) whose National Marine Fisheries Service is charged with enforcing the endangered species act where ocean creatures are concerned, said she might plunk the monk seal on the nose with her snorkel if she felt threatened.

“You’re going to have to do what you’d normally do to prevent an attack,” said Clark.

She quoted new University of Hawai’i President Dr. Evan Dobelle: “‘Whatever you do, it has to pass the rule of common sense.'”

As far as case law or human experience in terms of human-seal confrontation, there is none.

“We don’t have any safety rules for what to do if you’re bitten or scratched, or whatever,” Clark said.

First of all, the monk seal is not a hunting dog, or a shark. It will not be aggressive against humans unless it perceives a threat, feels it needs to protect a pup, or if it’s going for bait on a fishing line or for food stuck in a net, she said.

While the situation with the mother and pup seals at Po’ipu Beach Park is currently all quiet on the southern front, the question does arise, especially in the wake of a Texas visitor getting an unexpected, up close and personal introduction to the rare and endangered mammal while the Texas mammal was snorkeling at the beach park.

The mom, likely suspecting the visitor could pose a threat to her vulnerable offspring, nipped the swimmer in the rear end. The Texan, possibly the general manager of a radio station, has been the brunt of some good-natured ribbing from some of his employees.

One of his on-air personalities called The Garden Island seeking a live interview with one of the reporters covering the seals.

Walters said the closure of most of the beach park is necessary to make sure human-monk seal encounters won’t happen again. The state could be in violation of the federal endangered species act if it doesn’t do all it can to protect the seals from humans, and vice versa, no matter how inconvenient the beach closure is to two-legged mammals.

“I know we can coexist,” Walters said.

The beach is expected to remain closed for up to two more weeks. Once mother and pup go their separate ways, life on land at the beach park will return to normal.

The only way people will know that the mother has weaned the pup is when they don’t appear on the beach again. “The way we’ll know is when they go,” Walters said.

“The only way to know when it’s weaned is when they go out and don’t come back,” said Clark, who added that since monk seal pups usually live in the area where they were born, the newborn will eventually be tagged and moved to a more remote beach area.

National Marine Fisheries Service biologists who have been at the beach park since the pup was born around Sunday, July 22, report that the seals are exhibiting behavior that could indicate nature’s intended and historic separation of mother and child is near.

For example, the pup was seen swimming in one part of the protected cove, while the mother was in another part of the ocean, separate from the child, Clark said. The pup is becoming more independent, she added.

Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).