Dead monk seal pup found on Ni‘ihau

LIHU‘E — Federal authorities are continuing to investigate the cause of death of an endangered Hawaiian monk seal pup found over the weekend on Ni‘ihau.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Marine Fisheries Services reached out Monday to Bruce Robinson — one of the family members who owns the island — to retrieve the carcass so that a necropsy might be done.

By the time Ni‘ihau men reached the pup all that was left was the skull and skeleton, so NOAA was no longer interested in the retrieval, according to Wende Goo, NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service spokesperson.

The Ni‘ihau men reported finding something else near the dead pup — fresh footprints leading right up to the animal from the beach, according to Bruce Robinson’s brother, Keith Robinson.

He suspects fishing and diving charter boats may be to blame, but this allegation could not be confirmed. Several scuba companies on Kaua‘i offer Ni‘ihau dive tours.

“There are commercial charter boats hanging right off shore there and the people are repeatedly intruding right in the middle of the main area where the monk seals are born,” Keith Robinson said of an area of Ni‘ihau’s northwestern shoreline known as Kawaiaina that has a wide reef with lots of protected, shallow pools inside. The dead pup was discovered in this vicinity.

“This kind of thing has got to stop at some point or else we’re going to lose all the monk seals. A decision’s going to have to be made whether we’re going to tolerate people intruding in all the areas where the monk seals are on Ni‘ihau,” he said.

Robinson, 69, of Makaweli, estimated the dead pup to be 2 to 3 weeks old, weighing around 30 to 40 pounds and measuring about three feet in length.

He thinks spearfishermen coming into the shallow waters off Ni‘ihau where monk seals often give birth and nurse their young might have scared the mother off, causing her to abandon her pup.

Goo said that was a possibility.

“Loud noises, definitely,” and sudden movements might prompt a mother to flee, she said.

But there is also much documentation on how fiercely a mother will defend her pups if she perceives threats from any intruder, Goo said.

Robinson on Tuesday produced a copy of the deed showing his relatives purchased the island from King Kamehameha I for $10,000. Other documents indicated that kingdom, territory and state law also give the waters from shore to reef — or to a mile out to sea if no reef exists — to his family and the residents of Ni‘ihau.

He said Ni‘ihau and its 50 miles of shoreline are the only places in the world where the endangered Hawaiian monk seal is increasing in numbers and seeing a successful repopulation of a permanent seal colony.

The Hawaiian monk seals arrived in waters off Ni‘ihau in 1970, he said. “We protected them,” and continue to protect them, with the newest threat perceived to be divers and fishermen coming so close to shore as to spook not only the endangered species but human residents of the island, he said.

Not so long ago, Ni‘ihau women would not have given a second thought to jumping on a horse or bicycle to get to shoreline areas to pick shells for jewelry-making. Some now fear for their safety from off-island intruders, said Robinson.

The Kaua‘i fishermen say they don’t go ashore on Ni‘ihau, Robinson said, but “that’s a lie.”

Trespassers have gotten more brazen and confrontational when they meet Ni‘ihau residents on dry land and are asked to leave, he said.

“Over the years we have very carefully tried to conserve the (Ni‘ihau) fisheries,” where in other places in Hawai‘i the reefs have been “vacuumed” clean of fish and destroyed, rendering those other places less-than-ideal habitat for monk seals, he said.

He estimates there are between five and 10 monk-seal births a year on Ni‘ihau. There is a resident population of between 30 and 200 seals, with the last islandwide census counting 86 seals earlier this year, he said.

Jeff Walters of NOAA Fisheries said there are at least 150 monk seals in the Main Hawaiian Islands and on average 30 to 40 of those will be at Ni‘ihau.

Until last weekend’s discovery, a baby monk seal had never been found dead on the island, though an adult was once discovered with what appeared to be a long, straight knife wound that eventually proved fatal, said Robinson.

Fearing for the survival of the island’s monk-seal population, Robinson is considering a couple alternatives.

One would be to have the entire island’s coastline deemed critical habitat for the monk seal and allow governmental agencies an enforcement easement to protect the animals.

Another alternative would be to sue the county, state and federal governments for violations of the federal endangered species act, which states that critical habitat for such animals shall be protected, he said.

“We’ve been very responsible stewards of the Ni‘ihau shoreline,” with no help coming from state, federal or private environmental agencies, he said.

“We have a right to privacy,” he said, noting his fear that trespassing fishermen are operating in the middle of the monk seal rookery.

The only solution may be to enforce a prohibition on anyone coming within a half-mile of the shoreline, said Robinson.

“Keep them out of the place,” he said.

• Paul C. Curtis, assistant editor and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or pcurtis@kauaipubco.com.