WEBVTT
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Aloha Kākou
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Welcome to our third Thursday webinar.
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We have a really great presentation for you today
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about Hawaiian monk seals,
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working to recover the endangered seal of Hawai'i.
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We also have a American Sign Language interpreter,
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Rhonda Cunningham, here providing that service.
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So we're grateful, too, to have her.
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And just quickly,
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if you are having problems with your audio,
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please check your panel in the GoTo Webinar control panel
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and make sure the audio is set to
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whatever your input and output devices are,
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whether those are headphones or speakers,
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that's typically where people have challenges with that.
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But if you do still have problems,
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post them into the question box,
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and we'll do what we can to be able to help you
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listen to this webinar.
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But before we get started in Hawai'i,
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it's proper cultural protocol to open the space,
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to open it up to learning.
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So I'm going to turn this over to Justin Umholtz,
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who is going to present Mele no Papahānaumokuākea
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to open our space.
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Aloha mai kākou Welcome everyone.
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This is a song composed by
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Kainani Kahaunaele and Edward Ayau.
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And I will try to do it justice honoring this place.
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I'm gonna turn my camera off
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and just focus on voice and slides.
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(chanting in Hawaiian)
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Mahalo, Justin.
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Yes, our space is open and we're open
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to our minds to learning during this presentation.
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(indistinct)
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So we both, we work for
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the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries under NOAA.
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And this is a system of underwater parks
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across the United States and into the Pacific.
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We have areas such as Stellwagen Bank, Monitor, Gray's Reef,
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Florida Keys on the East Coast,
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Flower Garden Banks in the Gulf of Mexico,
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Greater Farallones, Monterey Bay on the West Coast,
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Olympic Coast.
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Out here in the Pacific we have
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Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary,
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and the area that we work for,
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which is Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.
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And we also have a sanctuary to the south,
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the National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa.
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So there's 15 national marine sanctuaries,
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four currently proposed national marine sanctuaries,
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and two marine national monuments.
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So we have a lot of development going on
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in the system right now.
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You can see these yellow squares are areas
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that are currently proposed
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National Marine Sanctuary designations.
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Hudson Canyon on the East Coast, Lake Ontario,
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Chumash Heritage,
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and out here in the Pacific
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we have two sanctuary designations going on.
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Papahānaumokuākea is going through
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a national sanctuary designation,
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as is the Pacific Remote Islands.
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And we've been going through scoping process
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for the Pacific Remote Islands right now.
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If you click on that link or go to that link,
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you can follow more information about this proposal.
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But we recently held meetings in Hawai'i, in Guam.
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Last night we held a meeting in Saipan,
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and we're meeting in American Samoa, Rota, Tinian,
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and the Northern Mariana Islands.
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So if you want to participate in that process,
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go to that website.
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You can submit comments on what this
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National Marine Sanctuary might be or might do,
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and we'd love to hear from you.
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But the area that we work for is
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Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.
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And these are the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
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So past Kauaʻi, there's another string of islands,
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atolls, coral reefs, that stretch for 1200 miles.
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If you were to overlay the Hawaiian Archipelago
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over the United States,
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you can see that in the map on the lower left,
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it would stretch from about New Orleans to Las Vegas.
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So it's a vast area of the Pacific Ocean.
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Papahānaumokuākea is 582,000 square miles of ocean area.
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And this is what we try to protect, to research,
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to understand, to support the cultural legacy
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and heritage of this place,
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and through webinars such as this,
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let you know a little bit more
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about the work that we do up there.
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So our hosts today are myself, Andy Collins,
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and Justin, whom you heard from before.
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We both work over here
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at the Mokupāpapa Discovery Center in Hilo.
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So we have an incredible 30,000 square foot facility
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here in Hilo.
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If you're ever here, we'd love to see you.
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We're open Tuesday through Saturday, nine to four.
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We're free and open to the public.
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We have exhibits in English and ʻōlelo Hawai'i,
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or the Hawaiian language.
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We have an incredible 3,500 gallon saltwater fish tank.
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We have beautiful art and exhibits
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spread throughout the facility.
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And we get about 73,000 visitors a year,
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as well as 8,000 students we run through guided programs
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each year at our facility.
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But across the system,
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the National Marine Sanctuary Program
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works to protect the biodiversity of these special places,
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provides shelter for like this Hawaiian monk seal
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and Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle,
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enjoying a peaceful moment up at French Frigate Shoals.
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You're gonna hear more about the Hawaiian monk seal
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through Stacie in a few minutes here.
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We also protect the cultural heritage
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and support the ongoing living culture of Hawai'i
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and explore it and to do cultural practices at these places.
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This is an image from Mokumanamana,
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the second island in the chain,
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which is an island completely covered
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by ceremonial and sacred sites.
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We also protect the maritime heritage of these islands.
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There are many shipwrecks and historical sites
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across the system.
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We conduct research to understand these areas better.
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We also monitor them for things like
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climate change and other impacts.
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And we also conduct resource protection.
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In the Florida Keys there's a great program
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called Mission: Iconic Reefs,
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where they're restoring some of the reefs
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across the Florida Keys.
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And that's a huge effort.
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It's multimillion dollar project.
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The best thing to do is protect these areas
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so they don't get damaged in the first place.
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But in other cases you can go back in
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and try to restore some of those areas,
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and that's what they're doing in the Florida Keys.
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We do this.
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We do all our work through education
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and involving the public, outreach events,
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and we couldn't do any of this without
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all of our volunteers across the system.
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So if you are interested in volunteering
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in the National Marine Sanctuary, please reach out,
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or reach out to me and I can connect you
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with somebody at a different site
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if you would like to volunteer.
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But these are special places where we can reconnect
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with our spirit and reconnect with nature.
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And that's one of the reasons why we protect these areas.
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So today we have a fantastic presenter.
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We have Stacie Robinson, PhD.
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She works for NOAA in the
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Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program.
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So Stacie has a passion for conserving biodiversity.
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She earned her bachelors and masters and PhD
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in Wildlife Ecology.
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She has worked for NOAA's
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Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program since 2014.
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Her work is dedicated to understanding the biology of
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and threats to our Native Hawaiian monk seal.
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And I'm going to...
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You can turn on your webcam, Stacie,
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I'm going turn over the presenter to you.
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Thank you, Andy.
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(indistinct)
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(computer beeping)
(indistinct)
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For some reason it's just beeping at me.
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Try to try to drop down.
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Did you go to the dropdown list and make sure that that's-
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Oh wait.
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There's another box that was covered.
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Sorry about that.
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It's okay.
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All right.
Yeah, it's coming up now,
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and just go into presentation mode.
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Alrighty, so I think, let's see.
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No I gotta press play again.
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I think it's gonna do like we did when we practiced,
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and it's gonna take a minute to to load it,
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'cause it's just saying paused at the moment.
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So I will just take-
No, you gotta,
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well you have to hit play.
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You have to hit play on that-
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Yeah.
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Yeah, and it's.
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Okay, now it's up.
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We're good.
There we go, all right.
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All right, thanks for stickin' with those
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technical difficulties, and thank you everyone
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for joining me today to talk about some of the work
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that NOAA is doing to study and recover
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our endangered Hawaiian monk seals.
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And so today I'm gonna start by just talking about
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some of the basics about Hawaiian monk seals,
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but then we will also talk about
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the status and trends of the seals, threats,
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and interventions that we're doing to mitigate those.
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And some of the cool research that we're doing.
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So first just a little bit
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getting to know the Hawaiian monk seal.
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They are endemic to the Hawaiian archipelago,
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so that means that they exist here,
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but nowhere else in the world,
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which already makes them really special.
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But they're also incredibly special
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in that they are the world's only tropical true seal.
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Like most of the true seals in the world
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live in much colder waters,
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and Hawaiian monk seals are really unique
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in living in the tropical environment.
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And so they range over the entire archipelago.
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So that's the main islands, the populated ones,
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like where I live, and where a lot of you may have visited.
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And then also those Northwestern Hawaiian Islands,
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making up the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument
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that Andy was talking about earlier.
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And so the scientific name for the Hawaiian monk seal
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is Neomonachus schauinslandi,
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but they also have Hawaiian names,
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and have been referred to in a number of different ways
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in the Hawaiian language,
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but kinda the most common names in Hawaiian are
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'īlio holo i ka uaua and 'īlio holo kai,
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and so those are kind of variations
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of the dog of the sea or the dog that runs in rough waters.
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So you can kinda see where
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early Hawaiian people were kind of finding ways
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to refer to these seals in familiar ways,
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kind of combining the fact
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that this is a furry creature and also living in the ocean.
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Monk seals have a really wide array
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of food items in their diet.
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People often ask what do monk seals eat?
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And they might expect like some other seals
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where they focus on a few more specific prey items.
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But monk seals actually eat a number
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of different types of fish.
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They eat eels, they eat octopus, they eat crustaceans.
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And instead of focusing on a particular species,
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or prey item, what they do is they focus on a technique.
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And so they like to dive down to the sea floor,
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and then they kind of root around
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and find these cryptic prey, or prey that are kind of hidden
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in all the little nooks and crannies and coral reefs
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and sand fields on the ocean floor.
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So they're really pretty clever and specialized in that way,
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even though the diet items are kind of broad
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rather than specialized.
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And so my first question for you guys.
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These guys are gonna put up a little poll so you can answer.
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I'm gonna have a multiple choice where you can pick out
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which item is part of the Hawaiian monk seal diet.
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00:13:57.330 --> 00:14:00.030
All right, can everyone hopefully see that?
264
00:14:00.886 --> 00:14:04.020
We have four choices, fish, octopus, crustaceans,
265
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or all of the above.
266
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Yep, I see 50% of our audience has voted.
267
00:14:09.870 --> 00:14:11.987
I'll go ahead and give a little bit more time,
268
00:14:11.987 --> 00:14:16.987
see if we can get up to 80%, nearly there.
269
00:14:17.190 --> 00:14:18.780
Wow, you guys are fast.
270
00:14:18.780 --> 00:14:21.030
People must have been-
(Justin laughing)
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All right, I'm gonna go ahead
272
00:14:22.230 --> 00:14:24.690
and close the poll and share it
273
00:14:24.690 --> 00:14:28.800
in five, four, three, two, one.
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So Stacie, you should be able to see it.
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Oh man, you guys are good.
276
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Yep, people were paying attention.
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Monk seals eat all of this variety of different food items.
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00:14:41.790 --> 00:14:43.263
So good job, guys.
279
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All right, and now let's move on
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to talking about the status
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and the trends in the population.
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We just released a little web story,
283
00:14:57.480 --> 00:15:00.480
and I know Justin's gonna put the link
284
00:15:00.480 --> 00:15:02.160
in the chat for you guys,
285
00:15:02.160 --> 00:15:03.480
but we just released a web story
286
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with this year's population updates.
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00:15:06.240 --> 00:15:09.030
We spend a lotta time out around the island
288
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surveying seals each year.
289
00:15:11.130 --> 00:15:14.370
And so this year we had some really great news to report.
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00:15:14.370 --> 00:15:15.840
This is actually the first time
291
00:15:15.840 --> 00:15:18.750
since we've been working on the seals
292
00:15:18.750 --> 00:15:21.300
that the numbers have topped 1600.
293
00:15:21.300 --> 00:15:24.990
So that's a really great indication of recovery.
294
00:15:24.990 --> 00:15:27.900
And so most of the seals are actually
295
00:15:27.900 --> 00:15:30.000
up in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands,
296
00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:32.430
in the Papahānaumokuākea Monuments.
297
00:15:32.430 --> 00:15:35.460
And so we have about 1200 seals up there,
298
00:15:35.460 --> 00:15:37.770
and then just about 400 sharing
299
00:15:37.770 --> 00:15:40.023
the main Hawaiian Islands with us.
300
00:15:41.820 --> 00:15:45.030
And so over the years, just looking at
301
00:15:45.030 --> 00:15:47.460
the population over the years.
302
00:15:47.460 --> 00:15:50.190
So these dots are population estimates
303
00:15:50.190 --> 00:15:51.990
over these different years,
304
00:15:51.990 --> 00:15:55.050
and you can see some little bars
305
00:15:55.050 --> 00:15:58.650
for the confidence range around that, since we are,
306
00:15:58.650 --> 00:16:01.140
we use scientific methods to go out and count,
307
00:16:01.140 --> 00:16:02.970
but we don't always see every single seal.
308
00:16:02.970 --> 00:16:06.540
So we have some range around that estimate,
309
00:16:06.540 --> 00:16:07.560
but you can see those.
310
00:16:07.560 --> 00:16:11.910
And over time the estimate has been going up.
311
00:16:11.910 --> 00:16:14.700
And so at this point we have had a decade
312
00:16:14.700 --> 00:16:17.250
of positive growth in the population,
313
00:16:17.250 --> 00:16:19.710
and so this line has been going up
314
00:16:19.710 --> 00:16:22.560
at about a rate of 2% per year.
315
00:16:22.560 --> 00:16:26.040
So that's really great news for the Hawaiian monk seal,
316
00:16:26.040 --> 00:16:28.440
and really encouraging for all of the work
317
00:16:28.440 --> 00:16:30.753
that we've been doing to recover the species.
318
00:16:32.340 --> 00:16:35.520
And so my next question for you guys,
319
00:16:35.520 --> 00:16:37.200
if you have been listening,
320
00:16:37.200 --> 00:16:39.030
what is the current estimate
321
00:16:39.030 --> 00:16:42.663
of the total Hawaiian monk seal population?
322
00:16:46.350 --> 00:16:48.500
All right, we are at 50%
323
00:16:48.500 --> 00:16:51.363
of the audience has voted, and it's rising quickly.
324
00:16:53.610 --> 00:16:56.243
I'll shoot for that 80%.
325
00:16:59.100 --> 00:17:02.220
All right, it's starting to slow down at 74% voted,
326
00:17:02.220 --> 00:17:03.810
so I'm gonna count down to five.
327
00:17:03.810 --> 00:17:08.810
Give you last chance, four, three, two, one,
328
00:17:10.063 --> 00:17:11.063
and closing.
329
00:17:12.780 --> 00:17:14.373
And, here are the results.
330
00:17:15.360 --> 00:17:17.700
All right, so yeah, definitely most people
331
00:17:17.700 --> 00:17:20.010
clued in on that 1600.
332
00:17:20.010 --> 00:17:22.290
A couple people probably got tripped up by the 1200
333
00:17:22.290 --> 00:17:24.750
that are just in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
334
00:17:24.750 --> 00:17:28.530
But yeah, 1600 for the total species population,
335
00:17:28.530 --> 00:17:31.770
which is great news for the Hawaiian monk seal.
336
00:17:31.770 --> 00:17:33.390
But as I'm sure you guys recognize,
337
00:17:33.390 --> 00:17:36.420
1600 is also not that many.
338
00:17:36.420 --> 00:17:38.550
So we definitely still wanna be
339
00:17:38.550 --> 00:17:41.310
really careful with this population
340
00:17:41.310 --> 00:17:43.170
and work really hard toward their recovery.
341
00:17:43.170 --> 00:17:45.150
And so one of the things we think a lot about
342
00:17:45.150 --> 00:17:46.740
are what things are threatening
343
00:17:46.740 --> 00:17:48.207
the survival of Hawaiian monk seals
344
00:17:48.207 --> 00:17:52.200
and what interventions can we do that can help
345
00:17:52.200 --> 00:17:54.033
alleviate some of those threats.
346
00:17:56.310 --> 00:17:58.830
And so the threats that they face,
347
00:17:58.830 --> 00:18:00.120
and the habitat that they live in,
348
00:18:00.120 --> 00:18:01.680
are actually quite different between
349
00:18:01.680 --> 00:18:03.120
the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands
350
00:18:03.120 --> 00:18:04.350
and the main Hawaiian Islands.
351
00:18:04.350 --> 00:18:06.390
So we'll start talking about the threats
352
00:18:06.390 --> 00:18:09.510
that seals are facing in the Northwestern Islands.
353
00:18:09.510 --> 00:18:12.210
And so here's a picture of one of the small islets up there,
354
00:18:12.210 --> 00:18:16.410
you can see just how different this is
355
00:18:16.410 --> 00:18:18.540
from the islands you might be used to seeing,
356
00:18:18.540 --> 00:18:20.587
like here with the city of Honolulu.
357
00:18:20.587 --> 00:18:25.587
But so these are mostly very low lying, small sandy islets,
358
00:18:25.650 --> 00:18:30.360
and seals face threats like entanglement in marine debris,
359
00:18:30.360 --> 00:18:32.073
predation from sharks,
360
00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:35.730
starvation or malnutrition,
361
00:18:35.730 --> 00:18:37.440
and threats of climate change.
362
00:18:37.440 --> 00:18:40.240
And so we'll talk a little bit more about each of those.
363
00:18:41.460 --> 00:18:43.350
So for entanglement,
364
00:18:43.350 --> 00:18:46.950
monk seals are actually the seal, or pinniped species,
365
00:18:46.950 --> 00:18:49.320
with the highest rates of entanglements.
366
00:18:49.320 --> 00:18:52.440
So it's a pretty big threat for them, in particular.
367
00:18:52.440 --> 00:18:55.800
And part of this is just because of the location
368
00:18:55.800 --> 00:18:57.330
of the Northwest Hawaiian Islands.
369
00:18:57.330 --> 00:19:00.060
They're in what's called the Northern Pacific Gyre,
370
00:19:00.060 --> 00:19:03.150
or this big current that circulates
371
00:19:03.150 --> 00:19:05.040
and can circulate a lot of the debris
372
00:19:05.040 --> 00:19:06.870
in the Northern Pacific.
373
00:19:06.870 --> 00:19:09.090
And so particularly some of these ghost nets
374
00:19:09.090 --> 00:19:12.060
from the fishing industry can be a real danger
375
00:19:12.060 --> 00:19:14.370
if seals are entangled in them.
376
00:19:14.370 --> 00:19:17.400
But so here in this video you can actually see
377
00:19:17.400 --> 00:19:20.523
one of the types of interventions that we do.
378
00:19:21.360 --> 00:19:25.470
So this was some of our biologists
379
00:19:25.470 --> 00:19:27.780
at one of the remote field camps out in the islands
380
00:19:27.780 --> 00:19:32.280
had spotted this seal who was entangled in this big netball.
381
00:19:32.280 --> 00:19:34.020
And so they took the boat out there,
382
00:19:34.020 --> 00:19:36.873
and he's gonna try to free this seal.
383
00:19:38.250 --> 00:19:40.440
And so in addition to some of these
384
00:19:40.440 --> 00:19:44.280
very hands-on rescuing this one particular seal,
385
00:19:44.280 --> 00:19:46.320
we also have some really cool partners,
386
00:19:46.320 --> 00:19:49.620
like the Papahānaumokuākea Marine Debris Program.
387
00:19:49.620 --> 00:19:52.260
I know they gave one of these talks a couple months ago,
388
00:19:52.260 --> 00:19:53.430
and they're doing a lot of work
389
00:19:53.430 --> 00:19:56.400
to remove some of this debris from the ecosystem
390
00:19:56.400 --> 00:19:58.830
and try to avoid an entanglement like that
391
00:19:58.830 --> 00:20:00.000
in the first place.
392
00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:01.860
So those are a few of the things
393
00:20:01.860 --> 00:20:03.933
that we can do about the entanglements.
394
00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:10.020
And then another threat that they face is shark predation,
395
00:20:10.020 --> 00:20:11.760
and excuse the quality of this video,
396
00:20:11.760 --> 00:20:13.920
it's kind of from a trail cam like setup,
397
00:20:13.920 --> 00:20:16.230
but so you can see there is a mama seal
398
00:20:16.230 --> 00:20:18.810
chasing off a shark that was coming just
399
00:20:18.810 --> 00:20:22.530
right up to the sand to try to get that pup.
400
00:20:22.530 --> 00:20:26.280
And this is kind of a specialty that Galapagos sharks
401
00:20:26.280 --> 00:20:28.140
around one particular atoll,
402
00:20:28.140 --> 00:20:31.470
French Frigate Shoals, or Lalo, have developed.
403
00:20:31.470 --> 00:20:33.843
And so just at French Frigate Shoals,
404
00:20:35.040 --> 00:20:37.530
the sharks can actually take up to
405
00:20:37.530 --> 00:20:40.050
one in five of the pups every year.
406
00:20:40.050 --> 00:20:43.290
And you can see that really awful shark bite
407
00:20:43.290 --> 00:20:45.840
on the seal up there in the front corner.
408
00:20:45.840 --> 00:20:48.780
Luckily they have tremendous healing capability,
409
00:20:48.780 --> 00:20:52.140
and so this guy actually did survive and that wound healed.
410
00:20:52.140 --> 00:20:54.030
But some of the interventions that we do
411
00:20:54.030 --> 00:20:56.580
are we do a lot of translocations.
412
00:20:56.580 --> 00:20:58.230
So as soon as a pup has weaned,
413
00:20:58.230 --> 00:21:00.840
we might take them from the sharkiest islets
414
00:21:00.840 --> 00:21:04.500
to the less sharky islets within the Lalo atoll,
415
00:21:04.500 --> 00:21:07.260
and then we can also monitor and deliver some antibiotics
416
00:21:07.260 --> 00:21:09.450
to help the healing of some of those big wounds.
417
00:21:09.450 --> 00:21:12.210
And then we also do some targeted fishing
418
00:21:12.210 --> 00:21:14.730
to remove some of the more problematic
419
00:21:14.730 --> 00:21:16.083
and aggressive sharks.
420
00:21:18.060 --> 00:21:22.050
And then food limitation is another threat up there.
421
00:21:22.050 --> 00:21:23.370
So you would think, oh,
422
00:21:23.370 --> 00:21:27.180
this is such a pristine ecosystem up in the monument.
423
00:21:27.180 --> 00:21:29.130
How are seals not thriving?
424
00:21:29.130 --> 00:21:33.090
But there's actually, in this thriving ecosystem,
425
00:21:33.090 --> 00:21:37.290
there's a number of top predators that pose
426
00:21:37.290 --> 00:21:40.290
competition for seals and more seals competing.
427
00:21:40.290 --> 00:21:42.780
And so some of the juveniles just kind of fail to thrive.
428
00:21:42.780 --> 00:21:46.740
They don't really get up to speed.
429
00:21:46.740 --> 00:21:47.970
They can't get enough food,
430
00:21:47.970 --> 00:21:51.600
and so they lose weight rather than gaining weight,
431
00:21:51.600 --> 00:21:53.820
and a lot of them don't make it.
432
00:21:53.820 --> 00:21:56.130
And so what we have found over our decades
433
00:21:56.130 --> 00:21:58.200
of monitoring this population,
434
00:21:58.200 --> 00:22:00.030
whenever seals wean from their mother,
435
00:22:00.030 --> 00:22:03.570
we try to grab them and put on
436
00:22:03.570 --> 00:22:05.700
the flipper tag identification.
437
00:22:05.700 --> 00:22:07.590
So you can see those little green spots
438
00:22:07.590 --> 00:22:08.700
on that seal's flippers.
439
00:22:08.700 --> 00:22:10.710
Those are his ID tags.
440
00:22:10.710 --> 00:22:13.680
And when we do that, we also measure
441
00:22:13.680 --> 00:22:15.570
what we call their axillary girth,
442
00:22:15.570 --> 00:22:20.570
or like the width or the girth around their chest.
443
00:22:21.270 --> 00:22:24.360
And so if that chest measurement is less than 90 centimeters
444
00:22:24.360 --> 00:22:25.920
when they wean from their mom,
445
00:22:25.920 --> 00:22:28.050
it has told us that really they don't have
446
00:22:28.050 --> 00:22:30.390
enough fat reserves to make it through
447
00:22:30.390 --> 00:22:32.700
that tough juvenile period
448
00:22:32.700 --> 00:22:35.970
of learning to forage for themselves.
449
00:22:35.970 --> 00:22:38.820
And so they're very unlikely to survive.
450
00:22:38.820 --> 00:22:41.700
So in order to help out with this,
451
00:22:41.700 --> 00:22:46.200
we have had to really get creative, really think big,
452
00:22:46.200 --> 00:22:48.630
and partner with some very important partners
453
00:22:48.630 --> 00:22:53.460
like this is the Ke Kai Ola Monk Seal Hospital
454
00:22:53.460 --> 00:22:55.200
pictured up there in the corner,
455
00:22:55.200 --> 00:22:58.410
and that's a facility from the Marine Mammal Center.
456
00:22:58.410 --> 00:23:00.540
So we are able to, when we're at the field camps
457
00:23:00.540 --> 00:23:01.770
in the Northwestern Hawaiian islands,
458
00:23:01.770 --> 00:23:05.280
we can find a struggling juvenile like this poor little guy,
459
00:23:05.280 --> 00:23:09.570
and we can capture them and take them on our research ship
460
00:23:09.570 --> 00:23:13.290
down to that Ke Kai Ola Kospital in Kona.
461
00:23:13.290 --> 00:23:16.920
And then the professionals from the Marine Mammal Center
462
00:23:16.920 --> 00:23:18.510
that work there, the professionals
463
00:23:18.510 --> 00:23:21.000
and the dedicated volunteers,
464
00:23:21.000 --> 00:23:23.910
they are going to do a lot of work feeding,
465
00:23:23.910 --> 00:23:25.830
nursing these seals back to health,
466
00:23:25.830 --> 00:23:28.860
getting them fattened up, and in robust, healthy condition.
467
00:23:28.860 --> 00:23:31.803
You can see this guy chowing down on some herring.
468
00:23:32.970 --> 00:23:34.680
And then we can take them back up
469
00:23:34.680 --> 00:23:36.480
to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands
470
00:23:36.480 --> 00:23:40.110
and release them in healthy, robust condition
471
00:23:40.110 --> 00:23:43.080
where they're going to have enough body reserves
472
00:23:43.080 --> 00:23:46.380
that it will get them through those periods
473
00:23:46.380 --> 00:23:49.320
of learning to eat and fend for themselves.
474
00:23:49.320 --> 00:23:51.000
And if you guys are noticing
475
00:23:51.000 --> 00:23:53.280
some little electronics on their back,
476
00:23:53.280 --> 00:23:55.860
those are satellite trackers that we use
477
00:23:55.860 --> 00:23:59.610
to keep track of how the seals are doing
478
00:23:59.610 --> 00:24:04.233
when we release them and monitor them for a little while.
479
00:24:05.820 --> 00:24:09.000
And we've actually now been doing these rehabilitations
480
00:24:09.000 --> 00:24:11.280
long enough that we are just now getting kind of
481
00:24:11.280 --> 00:24:13.620
the first generation of females
482
00:24:13.620 --> 00:24:17.670
that went to rehab as pups and then got released,
483
00:24:17.670 --> 00:24:20.040
now are starting to have their own pups.
484
00:24:20.040 --> 00:24:22.090
So not only are we able to
485
00:24:23.340 --> 00:24:26.610
rehabilitate like the one seal that goes into rehab,
486
00:24:26.610 --> 00:24:29.370
but especially when we focus on the female pups,
487
00:24:29.370 --> 00:24:31.230
then they're able to contribute
488
00:24:31.230 --> 00:24:33.720
to the future generations of the population
489
00:24:33.720 --> 00:24:37.383
and really contribute to recovery of the population.
490
00:24:47.760 --> 00:24:49.530
And then of course climate change
491
00:24:49.530 --> 00:24:52.470
is also a big threat worldwide,
492
00:24:52.470 --> 00:24:54.810
but especially for low-lying islands
493
00:24:54.810 --> 00:24:57.210
like what we have in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands.
494
00:24:57.210 --> 00:24:58.740
And these are a couple of pictures,
495
00:24:58.740 --> 00:25:02.970
both from that French Frigate Shoals, or Lalo atoll.
496
00:25:02.970 --> 00:25:05.610
And you can see some of these historical
497
00:25:05.610 --> 00:25:08.820
and more recent images where we have Whaleskate Island
498
00:25:08.820 --> 00:25:10.950
that has gone from a pretty large island
499
00:25:10.950 --> 00:25:13.350
to just like this tiny little nubbin of sand
500
00:25:13.350 --> 00:25:14.880
out there in the water.
501
00:25:14.880 --> 00:25:17.430
And then East Island that was almost completely destroyed
502
00:25:17.430 --> 00:25:22.140
by Hurricane Walaka in 2018.
503
00:25:22.140 --> 00:25:23.760
And so while climate change
504
00:25:23.760 --> 00:25:27.210
is certainly a much harder problem to address,
505
00:25:27.210 --> 00:25:29.100
or at least from the scale of what we can do
506
00:25:29.100 --> 00:25:31.500
as the Monk Seal Research Program.
507
00:25:31.500 --> 00:25:33.180
But so one of the things that we try to do
508
00:25:33.180 --> 00:25:34.980
to think about mitigating climate change
509
00:25:34.980 --> 00:25:37.770
is really mitigating all those other threats
510
00:25:37.770 --> 00:25:40.920
that we can have a more active role in
511
00:25:40.920 --> 00:25:45.068
and making sure that other areas of the monk seal habitat
512
00:25:45.068 --> 00:25:47.430
are places where they can really thrive
513
00:25:47.430 --> 00:25:49.530
and kind of make up for some of the losses
514
00:25:49.530 --> 00:25:50.520
that they might face
515
00:25:50.520 --> 00:25:53.550
in some of these tiny islets in the Northwesterns.
516
00:25:53.550 --> 00:25:56.340
And so that kind of brings us to the main Hawaiian Islands,
517
00:25:56.340 --> 00:25:59.070
where the habitat, of course, is really different.
518
00:25:59.070 --> 00:26:02.010
We have much larger islands, much higher islands,
519
00:26:02.010 --> 00:26:06.000
that are likely to be refuges from climate change
520
00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:07.953
for at least quite some time.
521
00:26:08.820 --> 00:26:11.640
But here, of course, we have different threats,
522
00:26:11.640 --> 00:26:13.470
most of which have to do with
523
00:26:13.470 --> 00:26:15.600
the influence of people or people's pets,
524
00:26:15.600 --> 00:26:19.410
like cats, that can carry the disease toxoplasmosis.
525
00:26:19.410 --> 00:26:21.630
We have interactions with fisheries
526
00:26:21.630 --> 00:26:26.247
that can be quite dangerous and injure or kill seals.
527
00:26:26.247 --> 00:26:29.490
And we also have sometimes disturbance
528
00:26:29.490 --> 00:26:32.940
and interactions with the large human population
529
00:26:32.940 --> 00:26:34.410
that seals are overlapping with
530
00:26:34.410 --> 00:26:36.090
in the main Hawaiian Islands.
531
00:26:36.090 --> 00:26:38.740
And so we can talk a little more about each of those.
532
00:26:40.140 --> 00:26:44.160
So toxoplasmosis is a parasitic disease,
533
00:26:44.160 --> 00:26:46.500
and the parasite actually is linked to cats,
534
00:26:46.500 --> 00:26:48.660
because it can only complete its life cycle
535
00:26:48.660 --> 00:26:50.880
inside the gut of a cat.
536
00:26:50.880 --> 00:26:54.450
And so cats play a main role in
537
00:26:54.450 --> 00:26:57.360
putting these infectious particles out into the environment,
538
00:26:57.360 --> 00:27:01.260
and then when they wash down into the sea,
539
00:27:01.260 --> 00:27:03.180
monk seals can become infected,
540
00:27:03.180 --> 00:27:06.450
and they're actually quite susceptible to this disease,
541
00:27:06.450 --> 00:27:09.570
which, you can think about, probably makes sense.
542
00:27:09.570 --> 00:27:13.140
They evolved in this really isolated island ecosystem
543
00:27:13.140 --> 00:27:14.760
where they wouldn't have evolved with cats.
544
00:27:14.760 --> 00:27:17.880
So we wouldn't necessarily expect them to have defenses
545
00:27:17.880 --> 00:27:20.580
against this disease that's associated with cats.
546
00:27:20.580 --> 00:27:24.510
And so this disease is actually the leading disease
547
00:27:24.510 --> 00:27:28.470
or health threat to monk seals in the main Hawaiian Islands
548
00:27:28.470 --> 00:27:30.963
where they're exposed to this pathogen.
549
00:27:32.340 --> 00:27:35.130
And so we do a number of interventions
550
00:27:35.130 --> 00:27:36.810
related to toxoplasmosis.
551
00:27:36.810 --> 00:27:40.380
We do try to treat seals if we find them quickly enough.
552
00:27:40.380 --> 00:27:42.600
Some seals are just found dead
553
00:27:42.600 --> 00:27:44.700
before we can do anything to help.
554
00:27:44.700 --> 00:27:47.550
But also the treatments for monk seals with toxoplasmosis
555
00:27:47.550 --> 00:27:49.800
are not really great.
556
00:27:49.800 --> 00:27:51.570
We don't have great options.
557
00:27:51.570 --> 00:27:53.280
And so really what we wanna do
558
00:27:53.280 --> 00:27:57.270
is focus on removing the risk from the environment,
559
00:27:57.270 --> 00:27:58.950
rather than trying to treat the seals
560
00:27:58.950 --> 00:28:00.120
after they become sick.
561
00:28:00.120 --> 00:28:02.860
So what we really focus on is building awareness
562
00:28:03.960 --> 00:28:07.170
and building awareness around cat management.
563
00:28:07.170 --> 00:28:12.170
And that can sound like a pretty complicated and big issue.
564
00:28:12.240 --> 00:28:16.050
But everyone, all the cat lovers on this webinar,
565
00:28:16.050 --> 00:28:18.750
can do their part by keeping their cats
566
00:28:18.750 --> 00:28:20.970
safe and happy inside,
567
00:28:20.970 --> 00:28:24.090
and that will be safer for both cats and wildlife.
568
00:28:24.090 --> 00:28:25.620
And so one of the things we do
569
00:28:25.620 --> 00:28:27.929
is we've built a number of partnerships,
570
00:28:27.929 --> 00:28:31.260
one is called the Pono Pet Parent Partnership.
571
00:28:31.260 --> 00:28:35.520
And if you guys Google Pono Pet Parent or Pono Cat Parent
572
00:28:35.520 --> 00:28:38.370
you'll come up with some cool information
573
00:28:38.370 --> 00:28:43.370
about how you can have a safe and happy cat indoors.
574
00:28:43.980 --> 00:28:45.150
But other partnerships
575
00:28:45.150 --> 00:28:47.130
with other land management organizations
576
00:28:47.130 --> 00:28:48.480
are also really crucial,
577
00:28:48.480 --> 00:28:51.690
'cause while NOAA is more active in the water,
578
00:28:51.690 --> 00:28:55.200
we also need folks that are working on the land management,
579
00:28:55.200 --> 00:28:57.723
dealing with the the cat side of things.
580
00:28:59.520 --> 00:29:02.160
And then fisheries interactions is also a big one.
581
00:29:02.160 --> 00:29:05.490
I mean as you might imagine, fishing is incredibly popular.
582
00:29:05.490 --> 00:29:07.230
It's a great thing to do
583
00:29:07.230 --> 00:29:10.320
and is very culturally important in Hawai'i.
584
00:29:10.320 --> 00:29:13.980
So, the seals are here, the fishing is here.
585
00:29:13.980 --> 00:29:16.260
We don't want either one of these things to suffer,
586
00:29:16.260 --> 00:29:19.140
so we've gotta find coexistence between the two.
587
00:29:19.140 --> 00:29:24.140
But thus far, we've observed that nearly one third of seals
588
00:29:24.450 --> 00:29:27.510
in the main Hawaiian Islands have been hooked at some point.
589
00:29:27.510 --> 00:29:30.030
And so sometimes those are pretty minor hooking.
590
00:29:30.030 --> 00:29:32.100
It might just be a hook stuck in the lip,
591
00:29:32.100 --> 00:29:34.590
and that's something that can come out
592
00:29:34.590 --> 00:29:36.360
and not cause too much damage.
593
00:29:36.360 --> 00:29:37.950
But when hooks get ingested,
594
00:29:37.950 --> 00:29:40.230
like this guy in the x-ray here,
595
00:29:40.230 --> 00:29:41.911
those can be really damaging.
596
00:29:41.911 --> 00:29:46.740
So if hooks impale an organ or cause infection,
597
00:29:46.740 --> 00:29:50.613
some of those, the ingested hooks can actually become fatal.
598
00:29:52.318 --> 00:29:55.140
So some of the things we do to intervene
599
00:29:55.140 --> 00:29:56.430
with the fisheries interaction,
600
00:29:56.430 --> 00:29:59.430
certainly emergency response is a big part of it.
601
00:29:59.430 --> 00:30:03.180
You can see a couple instances of de-hooking a seal.
602
00:30:03.180 --> 00:30:07.590
So on the left we have a seal that had a more external hook,
603
00:30:07.590 --> 00:30:09.750
so we were able to just restrain it briefly
604
00:30:09.750 --> 00:30:12.570
and cut that hook off at the beach.
605
00:30:12.570 --> 00:30:15.090
But then we also sometimes have those ingested hooks,
606
00:30:15.090 --> 00:30:17.010
and those require a full-blown surgery
607
00:30:17.010 --> 00:30:18.510
in our veterinary lab.
608
00:30:18.510 --> 00:30:20.910
So that can get pretty intense.
609
00:30:20.910 --> 00:30:23.490
But the bigger thing we're trying to do
610
00:30:23.490 --> 00:30:26.610
to sort of alleviate this risk from the source
611
00:30:26.610 --> 00:30:28.350
is really raising awareness.
612
00:30:28.350 --> 00:30:30.390
So you can see a couple of these stickers
613
00:30:30.390 --> 00:30:32.970
related to some of NOAA's campaigns
614
00:30:32.970 --> 00:30:36.570
for fishing responsibly around seals and other wildlife,
615
00:30:36.570 --> 00:30:40.890
especially for spear fishers to be safe around seals
616
00:30:40.890 --> 00:30:43.260
since they're directly in the water with them.
617
00:30:43.260 --> 00:30:45.360
And then also increasing reporting,
618
00:30:45.360 --> 00:30:48.480
because if we get a report that a seal has been
619
00:30:48.480 --> 00:30:51.450
hanging around fishermen or might have been hooked,
620
00:30:51.450 --> 00:30:53.610
we can respond much more quickly,
621
00:30:53.610 --> 00:30:57.600
hopefully when it's a beach level response
622
00:30:57.600 --> 00:30:59.580
and not a surgery level response.
623
00:30:59.580 --> 00:31:02.880
So all of that partnership with the local fishing community
624
00:31:02.880 --> 00:31:05.460
is really important and hugely helpful.
625
00:31:05.460 --> 00:31:08.431
And we've started getting some calls from fishermen
626
00:31:08.431 --> 00:31:12.180
when those hooking events have happened,
627
00:31:12.180 --> 00:31:13.980
and that's been hugely appreciated,
628
00:31:13.980 --> 00:31:15.783
and really, really helps the seals.
629
00:31:17.400 --> 00:31:18.420
And then we have a number
630
00:31:18.420 --> 00:31:21.990
of different interactions with humans
631
00:31:21.990 --> 00:31:23.460
that can become harmful,
632
00:31:23.460 --> 00:31:24.630
and some of those are indirect.
633
00:31:24.630 --> 00:31:27.570
Like when people just think a monk seal is adorable
634
00:31:27.570 --> 00:31:30.000
and maybe play with it in the water or on a dive
635
00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:31.680
or feed it from a dock,
636
00:31:31.680 --> 00:31:34.470
but those can lead to some really dangerous habituations
637
00:31:34.470 --> 00:31:35.730
that can threaten people.
638
00:31:35.730 --> 00:31:39.570
And then of course if seals are threatening human safety,
639
00:31:39.570 --> 00:31:41.940
the seals might get moved and that might be
640
00:31:41.940 --> 00:31:43.650
very non-ideal for the seal.
641
00:31:43.650 --> 00:31:45.870
We've also had seals be harassed by dogs
642
00:31:45.870 --> 00:31:48.540
and some pups even killed by dogs on the beach.
643
00:31:48.540 --> 00:31:52.113
So people's pets, again, can be really impactful.
644
00:31:53.220 --> 00:31:56.130
And then very sadly we also have
645
00:31:56.130 --> 00:31:59.130
direct harm to seals by humans.
646
00:31:59.130 --> 00:32:01.530
And really unfortunately,
647
00:32:01.530 --> 00:32:04.530
intentional killing is actually the leading cause of death
648
00:32:04.530 --> 00:32:06.390
for monk seals in the main Hawaiian Islands.
649
00:32:06.390 --> 00:32:09.010
We've actually had 18 seals that have been
650
00:32:10.590 --> 00:32:13.050
killed since 2009.
651
00:32:13.050 --> 00:32:15.060
And so these human and wildlife conflicts
652
00:32:15.060 --> 00:32:18.270
are often fueled by negative perceptions,
653
00:32:18.270 --> 00:32:20.580
or even misperceptions, about the animals
654
00:32:20.580 --> 00:32:23.550
that might make it seem harder for the people
655
00:32:23.550 --> 00:32:26.250
and animals to coexist.
656
00:32:26.250 --> 00:32:27.930
And so this one can certainly be
657
00:32:27.930 --> 00:32:32.310
a really tricky and complex issue to deal with,
658
00:32:32.310 --> 00:32:33.840
to get at mitigating this threat.
659
00:32:33.840 --> 00:32:35.993
And it's certainly something that NOAA
660
00:32:35.993 --> 00:32:38.790
can't do and doesn't try to do all on our own.
661
00:32:38.790 --> 00:32:41.326
So we really rely on a lot of partners
662
00:32:41.326 --> 00:32:43.230
and community stewardship
663
00:32:43.230 --> 00:32:46.980
to increase coexistence with the seals,
664
00:32:46.980 --> 00:32:49.620
and this is something that everyone in the community
665
00:32:49.620 --> 00:32:53.010
can play a role in supporting that coexistence
666
00:32:53.010 --> 00:32:54.720
between people and wildlife,
667
00:32:54.720 --> 00:32:57.660
both the seals and other wildlife in Hawai'i.
668
00:32:57.660 --> 00:33:00.333
But so you can see on this slide, just a,
669
00:33:01.770 --> 00:33:05.100
probably not even a complete list of all of the...
670
00:33:05.100 --> 00:33:09.210
We've got state agencies and NGOs and community groups
671
00:33:09.210 --> 00:33:12.450
that are all trying to help out with
672
00:33:12.450 --> 00:33:15.360
spreading accurate information about monk seals
673
00:33:15.360 --> 00:33:17.343
and how they interact with the habitat.
674
00:33:18.540 --> 00:33:23.010
We've got a volunteer docent kind of watching seals
675
00:33:23.010 --> 00:33:24.780
and doing public engagements on the beach.
676
00:33:24.780 --> 00:33:27.450
So there's a lot of ways that people are involved
677
00:33:27.450 --> 00:33:32.010
in trying to just sort of mitigate
678
00:33:32.010 --> 00:33:33.870
any human and wildlife conflict
679
00:33:33.870 --> 00:33:35.763
between people in seals in Hawai'i.
680
00:33:37.650 --> 00:33:40.680
And with all of these interventions that I've talked about,
681
00:33:40.680 --> 00:33:43.680
of course, it sounds like a massive effort, and it is,
682
00:33:43.680 --> 00:33:46.170
but you can wonder, does that even pay off?
683
00:33:46.170 --> 00:33:48.450
And what we've seen over time is that
684
00:33:48.450 --> 00:33:53.040
about 30% of the monk seals that are in the population today
685
00:33:53.040 --> 00:33:54.900
are actually alive because of
686
00:33:54.900 --> 00:33:56.730
the interventions that we have done.
687
00:33:56.730 --> 00:33:59.280
So that means that either that seal itself
688
00:33:59.280 --> 00:34:03.753
or maybe that seal's pups or grandpups
689
00:34:04.740 --> 00:34:07.710
are around because we rescued that seal
690
00:34:07.710 --> 00:34:09.450
or the mother or grandmother,
691
00:34:09.450 --> 00:34:14.400
through those various interventions like disentangling,
692
00:34:14.400 --> 00:34:17.163
translocating, doing some veterinary rehab.
693
00:34:18.405 --> 00:34:22.200
So, over time these little interventions
694
00:34:22.200 --> 00:34:23.940
actually really do build up
695
00:34:23.940 --> 00:34:26.310
to make a huge difference to the population.
696
00:34:26.310 --> 00:34:30.240
So, it definitely kind of keeps us going when we're,
697
00:34:30.240 --> 00:34:31.800
out on the beach waiting for hours
698
00:34:31.800 --> 00:34:33.835
for a seal with a hook to show up
699
00:34:33.835 --> 00:34:36.240
to be able to get it de-hooked,
700
00:34:36.240 --> 00:34:38.163
but it definitely makes it worthwhile.
701
00:34:39.930 --> 00:34:42.780
And so I guess my question to you guys
702
00:34:42.780 --> 00:34:44.580
about threats and interventions,
703
00:34:44.580 --> 00:34:45.990
and maybe this one's a little harder,
704
00:34:45.990 --> 00:34:47.580
'cause this section was a lot longer
705
00:34:47.580 --> 00:34:48.930
than the other sections,
706
00:34:48.930 --> 00:34:52.770
but do you remember what is the biggest disease threat
707
00:34:52.770 --> 00:34:54.393
that Hawaiian monk seals face?
708
00:34:59.190 --> 00:35:00.570
Voting is fast and furious.
709
00:35:00.570 --> 00:35:02.320
We're already at 60%.
All right.
710
00:35:06.343 --> 00:35:07.590
It's starting to slow down at 70.
711
00:35:07.590 --> 00:35:08.880
I'll give you a little bit more time.
712
00:35:08.880 --> 00:35:11.580
Let's see if we can get to 80% of our audience voting.
713
00:35:14.790 --> 00:35:17.040
All right, it's quite a bit slower,
714
00:35:17.040 --> 00:35:21.973
so I'm gonna count down five, four, three, two,
715
00:35:23.160 --> 00:35:24.960
last chance, one.
716
00:35:24.960 --> 00:35:25.793
And close it.
717
00:35:29.580 --> 00:35:31.530
Oh, look at you guys listening so well.
718
00:35:31.530 --> 00:35:34.230
Yeah, toxoplasmosis is the biggest threat
719
00:35:34.230 --> 00:35:35.280
that monk seals face;
720
00:35:35.280 --> 00:35:38.010
although, all of those diseases in those choices
721
00:35:38.010 --> 00:35:41.613
were diseases that monk seals can acquire.
722
00:35:42.900 --> 00:35:44.640
But, yeah, toxo is definitely the one
723
00:35:44.640 --> 00:35:47.523
that we have seen be most impactful to the population.
724
00:35:48.900 --> 00:35:51.540
All right, so now I wanna talk to you guys
725
00:35:51.540 --> 00:35:53.340
about some of the cool research that we do.
726
00:35:53.340 --> 00:35:54.780
So all of this information,
727
00:35:54.780 --> 00:35:56.520
tracking the status of the seals,
728
00:35:56.520 --> 00:35:57.990
understanding what threatens them
729
00:35:57.990 --> 00:35:59.610
and what we can do about them,
730
00:35:59.610 --> 00:36:02.580
all of this comes from knowledge that we gain
731
00:36:02.580 --> 00:36:04.560
through research on the population.
732
00:36:04.560 --> 00:36:09.180
So I'll just talk to you about just a couple little aspects
733
00:36:09.180 --> 00:36:11.970
of some of the research that we're doing.
734
00:36:11.970 --> 00:36:15.480
And of course with a marine mammal it can be kind of tricky,
735
00:36:15.480 --> 00:36:18.210
thinking about how do we study seals
736
00:36:18.210 --> 00:36:21.210
that spend two thirds of their life underwater
737
00:36:21.210 --> 00:36:22.920
in their marine habitat?
738
00:36:22.920 --> 00:36:25.800
And so this guy is sporting a great example
739
00:36:25.800 --> 00:36:26.880
of one of the things we do,
740
00:36:26.880 --> 00:36:29.160
which is using biologging instruments,
741
00:36:29.160 --> 00:36:31.560
or different pieces of technology
742
00:36:31.560 --> 00:36:36.060
that we can put on a seal to track where it's going,
743
00:36:36.060 --> 00:36:38.043
what kind of behaviors it's doing.
744
00:36:40.230 --> 00:36:41.820
We use a number of different instruments.
745
00:36:41.820 --> 00:36:45.270
So here are some points from GPS tags
746
00:36:45.270 --> 00:36:47.370
that we've put on some seals.
747
00:36:47.370 --> 00:36:51.510
And so each color in there is a different seal,
748
00:36:51.510 --> 00:36:52.740
so they can be a little hard to see.
749
00:36:52.740 --> 00:36:54.960
Some of 'em are on top of each other.
750
00:36:54.960 --> 00:36:59.310
So you can see we can track the movements of different seals
751
00:36:59.310 --> 00:37:03.150
and where they're going, how long they're spending,
752
00:37:03.150 --> 00:37:06.505
how far they have to travel in order to try to find
753
00:37:06.505 --> 00:37:09.960
some good habitat, some good areas to feed.
754
00:37:09.960 --> 00:37:12.160
So this can give us ideas of
755
00:37:13.110 --> 00:37:15.810
just how much effort it takes to be a seal,
756
00:37:15.810 --> 00:37:18.570
but then also looking at where they spend time
757
00:37:18.570 --> 00:37:20.160
really helps us understand
758
00:37:20.160 --> 00:37:22.230
what areas are important to the seals,
759
00:37:22.230 --> 00:37:25.915
what habitat might be associated with those areas
760
00:37:25.915 --> 00:37:28.200
that seals are really focusing on.
761
00:37:28.200 --> 00:37:30.600
And then that helps us know what kind of areas
762
00:37:30.600 --> 00:37:33.580
we need to really protect for the seals,
763
00:37:33.580 --> 00:37:37.530
and where we might go to survey seals,
764
00:37:37.530 --> 00:37:41.430
and what areas are incorporated into things,
765
00:37:41.430 --> 00:37:42.867
like critical habitat
766
00:37:42.867 --> 00:37:45.450
and some of the monuments that we have,
767
00:37:45.450 --> 00:37:47.493
or the reserves and things like that.
768
00:37:49.590 --> 00:37:52.983
And then here's an example of a little more,
769
00:37:54.210 --> 00:37:58.710
more complex set of instruments or sensors.
770
00:37:58.710 --> 00:38:00.960
So all of these little squiggles
771
00:38:00.960 --> 00:38:05.220
are actually tracing the dives that the monk seal made.
772
00:38:05.220 --> 00:38:07.500
So you see each of those little kind of U-shaped dips.
773
00:38:07.500 --> 00:38:09.570
That's where a monk seal went down,
774
00:38:09.570 --> 00:38:11.970
swam along the bottom, came back up.
775
00:38:11.970 --> 00:38:14.070
And so we're able to get those when we put
776
00:38:14.070 --> 00:38:16.050
an instrument with a depth sensor.
777
00:38:16.050 --> 00:38:18.300
And so we have some pretty cool instruments these days
778
00:38:18.300 --> 00:38:20.640
that have things kind of almost like a Fitbit,
779
00:38:20.640 --> 00:38:22.830
but in some pretty hardy casing,
780
00:38:22.830 --> 00:38:25.470
so that it can survive the marine environments,
781
00:38:25.470 --> 00:38:27.120
stuck onto a seal.
782
00:38:27.120 --> 00:38:29.070
But so we're able to get from that
783
00:38:29.070 --> 00:38:31.500
some really intricate ideas
784
00:38:31.500 --> 00:38:34.440
of what seals are doing in different places,
785
00:38:34.440 --> 00:38:36.210
how they move their bodies
786
00:38:36.210 --> 00:38:40.410
and how they get around their environment and what places.
787
00:38:40.410 --> 00:38:42.240
Like you can see...
788
00:38:42.240 --> 00:38:43.320
I don't think my pointer works.
789
00:38:43.320 --> 00:38:45.000
But you can see kind of in the upper left
790
00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:47.700
some of those much more shallow little U's,
791
00:38:47.700 --> 00:38:49.230
that's where the seal's probably just
792
00:38:49.230 --> 00:38:51.210
dipping just under the surface
793
00:38:51.210 --> 00:38:54.600
and swimming along and really just kinda
794
00:38:54.600 --> 00:38:57.120
trying to get someplace a little bit more quickly.
795
00:38:57.120 --> 00:38:59.280
And then you see some of those really deep
796
00:38:59.280 --> 00:39:02.430
long U-shaped deep dives,
797
00:39:02.430 --> 00:39:05.670
and that's where the seal is really going down to the bottom
798
00:39:05.670 --> 00:39:08.130
and cruising along the bottom looking for some food.
799
00:39:08.130 --> 00:39:10.500
So we can get the idea of like, sure,
800
00:39:10.500 --> 00:39:12.600
seals might be using all of this area,
801
00:39:12.600 --> 00:39:13.920
but it looks like some areas
802
00:39:13.920 --> 00:39:15.510
they might just be traveling through.
803
00:39:15.510 --> 00:39:19.080
And then some areas they're really focusing on
804
00:39:19.080 --> 00:39:20.910
for their feeding activities.
805
00:39:20.910 --> 00:39:23.670
So that's a really cool way to get
806
00:39:23.670 --> 00:39:26.853
kind of a finer look into what the seals are doing.
807
00:39:27.960 --> 00:39:31.530
And then one of the most fun instruments that we have
808
00:39:31.530 --> 00:39:34.620
are cameras that the seals actually get to wear,
809
00:39:34.620 --> 00:39:38.850
and so we can get a seal eye view of what they're doing
810
00:39:38.850 --> 00:39:40.410
in their underwater environment.
811
00:39:40.410 --> 00:39:42.960
And so this, of course, is a really key way
812
00:39:42.960 --> 00:39:45.810
to really understand what seals are doing
813
00:39:45.810 --> 00:39:48.510
as they kind of take us along to take a look.
814
00:39:48.510 --> 00:39:51.030
And so here where the seal is digging up that cloud.
815
00:39:51.030 --> 00:39:53.910
You can see that's an example of the seal kind of
816
00:39:53.910 --> 00:39:56.370
digging in the bottom sediment
817
00:39:56.370 --> 00:40:00.450
to get some sort of fish or prey out of there.
818
00:40:00.450 --> 00:40:02.190
And so you can see this shark comes by,
819
00:40:02.190 --> 00:40:04.320
and the seal has to chase it off.
820
00:40:04.320 --> 00:40:06.270
So remember back when we talked about diet,
821
00:40:06.270 --> 00:40:08.520
I was mentioning seals are really specialized
822
00:40:08.520 --> 00:40:13.410
in this type of kind of bottom searching,
823
00:40:13.410 --> 00:40:17.040
finding those prey that are really hidden in the sand
824
00:40:17.040 --> 00:40:20.010
or in little coral nooks and crannies.
825
00:40:20.010 --> 00:40:21.300
So the seal's really good at that,
826
00:40:21.300 --> 00:40:25.170
but the sharks and other big predatory fish like ulua,
827
00:40:25.170 --> 00:40:28.020
they're not nearly as good as the monk seals are.
828
00:40:28.020 --> 00:40:31.620
So often what we'll find is that these sharks or ulua
829
00:40:31.620 --> 00:40:33.720
might be following along with the seals,
830
00:40:33.720 --> 00:40:37.110
letting the seal dig up the hidden prey item,
831
00:40:37.110 --> 00:40:40.650
and then they might swoop in and try to grab it from them.
832
00:40:40.650 --> 00:40:44.058
So you can imagine how that sort of competition would be,
833
00:40:44.058 --> 00:40:46.380
make it kind of difficult for a seal to get food,
834
00:40:46.380 --> 00:40:47.880
and especially those juveniles
835
00:40:47.880 --> 00:40:50.310
that might struggle to get enough.
836
00:40:50.310 --> 00:40:54.010
You can see how much time this seal has kind of spent
837
00:40:55.710 --> 00:40:59.400
having to kind of keep an eye on this shark
838
00:40:59.400 --> 00:41:01.710
or chase off the shark that was
839
00:41:01.710 --> 00:41:03.393
trying to get his lunch earlier.
840
00:41:12.600 --> 00:41:14.760
And here you can see a seal
841
00:41:14.760 --> 00:41:17.730
really working at pulling a prey item
842
00:41:17.730 --> 00:41:19.560
out of that little space in the coral.
843
00:41:19.560 --> 00:41:22.470
So something that's really hidden in there,
844
00:41:22.470 --> 00:41:26.793
and that seal is just gonna not stop until he gets it.
845
00:41:32.840 --> 00:41:37.007
And of course the sharks are very interested, too.
846
00:41:53.520 --> 00:41:54.930
And this seal is an adult,
847
00:41:54.930 --> 00:41:59.220
so it's probably most able to be intimidating
848
00:41:59.220 --> 00:42:01.170
and really chase those sharks off.
849
00:42:01.170 --> 00:42:03.160
So he's probably not nearly as worried
850
00:42:04.020 --> 00:42:07.187
about the sharks coming nearby as a smaller seal may be.
851
00:42:10.363 --> 00:42:12.090
All right, and then when they go to the light
852
00:42:12.090 --> 00:42:14.220
that's heading up toward the surface,
853
00:42:14.220 --> 00:42:17.370
and they dive for just about
854
00:42:17.370 --> 00:42:21.240
eight to 10 minutes at a time mostly, and then they go up.
855
00:42:21.240 --> 00:42:26.240
All right, so now let's see what you guys thought
856
00:42:27.690 --> 00:42:30.600
about some of the things we learned about their foraging.
857
00:42:30.600 --> 00:42:33.060
This one isn't really a right or wrong answer question,
858
00:42:33.060 --> 00:42:35.430
but I'm just kinda curious to see what folks think
859
00:42:35.430 --> 00:42:38.190
after seeing some of that data and videos.
860
00:42:38.190 --> 00:42:41.253
Does it seem easy to get a meal as a Hawaiian monk seal?
861
00:42:45.840 --> 00:42:47.550
All right, we're at 60% already
862
00:42:47.550 --> 00:42:49.053
and rising quickly.
863
00:42:56.040 --> 00:42:57.720
Okay, we're starting to taper off.
864
00:42:57.720 --> 00:43:00.840
I'm gonna give our audience another five seconds
865
00:43:00.840 --> 00:43:04.380
to see if we can get from 75 to 80% voted.
866
00:43:04.380 --> 00:43:09.380
Five, four, three, two, and closing.
867
00:43:15.150 --> 00:43:17.400
All right, most of you guys thought that
868
00:43:17.400 --> 00:43:20.310
it does not look too easy to get a meal
869
00:43:20.310 --> 00:43:21.480
as a Hawaiian monk seal.
870
00:43:21.480 --> 00:43:23.550
A few were more optimistic.
871
00:43:23.550 --> 00:43:25.110
Maybe those are the spear fishermen
872
00:43:25.110 --> 00:43:27.360
and the spear fishers in the audience
873
00:43:27.360 --> 00:43:30.870
that have more faith in their dive abilities.
874
00:43:30.870 --> 00:43:34.470
But yeah, that's just a little glimpse into the life
875
00:43:34.470 --> 00:43:35.883
of Hawaiian monk seals.
876
00:43:38.516 --> 00:43:40.767
And so I just wanna give a big mahalo, a thank you,
877
00:43:40.767 --> 00:43:43.225
for all of you guys joining me today,
878
00:43:43.225 --> 00:43:46.710
and I think I have probably left plenty of time
879
00:43:46.710 --> 00:43:49.710
to tackle some questions that folks might have come up with.
880
00:43:51.480 --> 00:43:53.910
Yes, very fascinating.
881
00:43:53.910 --> 00:43:55.440
Thank you so much, Stacie,
882
00:43:55.440 --> 00:43:58.080
for that fascinating presentation.
883
00:43:58.080 --> 00:44:01.410
And we had 261 people in attendance,
884
00:44:01.410 --> 00:44:03.750
and quite a few good questions.
885
00:44:03.750 --> 00:44:07.050
So we'll get through as many of these as we can,
886
00:44:07.050 --> 00:44:10.020
and the other ones we will send to Stacie,
887
00:44:10.020 --> 00:44:13.170
and she will answer those when she has time,
888
00:44:13.170 --> 00:44:14.910
and we'll get those back out to everybody.
889
00:44:14.910 --> 00:44:18.810
So every question will ultimately be addressed.
890
00:44:18.810 --> 00:44:23.437
But the first question we have on here is from Thomas Baker.
891
00:44:23.437 --> 00:44:26.077
"Are Hawaiian monk seals a different species
892
00:44:26.077 --> 00:44:29.520
"from those of the Caribbean and Mediterranean?"
893
00:44:29.520 --> 00:44:31.530
They are, and that's a really great question.
894
00:44:31.530 --> 00:44:34.560
I'm so glad that someone brought up the other,
895
00:44:34.560 --> 00:44:38.340
the rest of the monk seal family.
896
00:44:38.340 --> 00:44:42.810
So all three of those used to be in the same genus,
897
00:44:42.810 --> 00:44:45.651
called Monachus, but they were all different species.
898
00:44:45.651 --> 00:44:49.200
And then some more recent fossil evidence
899
00:44:49.200 --> 00:44:50.790
really showed that actually
900
00:44:50.790 --> 00:44:54.693
the Caribbean and Hawaiian monk seals
901
00:44:54.693 --> 00:44:57.600
were a little more different than the Mediterranean.
902
00:44:57.600 --> 00:45:02.600
So Hawaiian monk seals got put into the genus Neomonachus,
903
00:45:03.660 --> 00:45:07.740
and so the Caribbean monk seals went extinct
904
00:45:07.740 --> 00:45:08.820
quite a few years ago.
905
00:45:08.820 --> 00:45:12.840
So now we just have the Hawaiian monk seal
906
00:45:12.840 --> 00:45:14.910
and Mediterranean monk seal left.
907
00:45:14.910 --> 00:45:18.030
And yeah, as science has gone deeper,
908
00:45:18.030 --> 00:45:20.190
we've actually figured out they are more different
909
00:45:20.190 --> 00:45:21.780
and more distinct than we even thought.
910
00:45:21.780 --> 00:45:24.960
So now not only are they different species,
911
00:45:24.960 --> 00:45:26.310
but they are actually separated
912
00:45:26.310 --> 00:45:28.893
into different genuses now, too.
913
00:45:32.070 --> 00:45:35.130
Yeah, mahalo, just a quick, one cool thing,
914
00:45:35.130 --> 00:45:38.610
I love geology and the movement of tectonic plates,
915
00:45:38.610 --> 00:45:43.610
and the area around Panama used to be underwater,
916
00:45:43.770 --> 00:45:47.280
and actually the the Caribbean monks the passed through that
917
00:45:47.280 --> 00:45:49.530
four million or so years ago,
918
00:45:49.530 --> 00:45:51.540
and then ultimately wound up in Hawai'i.
919
00:45:51.540 --> 00:45:54.570
So it's really interesting how over millions of years
920
00:45:54.570 --> 00:45:56.493
these connections are made.
921
00:45:57.468 --> 00:45:58.560
(indistinct)
922
00:45:58.560 --> 00:45:59.393
Next question.
923
00:46:00.570 --> 00:46:02.793
All right, so we had a couple on the maps,
924
00:46:03.687 --> 00:46:05.523
the movement tracks you showed.
925
00:46:06.607 --> 00:46:09.067
"What is it about Oahu and Kauai
926
00:46:09.067 --> 00:46:11.167
"that makes them so popular for the monk seals
927
00:46:11.167 --> 00:46:13.297
"relative to Hawai'i Island and Maui
928
00:46:13.297 --> 00:46:15.157
"based off of what we saw?
929
00:46:15.157 --> 00:46:18.548
"Is it the proximity to the Northwestern White Islands?"
930
00:46:18.548 --> 00:46:19.500
And then we did have one audience member
931
00:46:19.500 --> 00:46:20.647
asking for clarification
932
00:46:20.647 --> 00:46:21.547
"What island was shown
933
00:46:21.547 --> 00:46:23.733
"in the depth recording imaging" as well.
934
00:46:24.840 --> 00:46:27.150
Which island was shown in what, the depth one?
935
00:46:27.150 --> 00:46:28.440
Yes.
This one?
936
00:46:28.440 --> 00:46:30.603
That is off the shore of Kauaʻi,
937
00:46:31.470 --> 00:46:35.583
and those were all tracks of, I believe, just one seal.
938
00:46:36.870 --> 00:46:38.613
And so on this one,
939
00:46:41.070 --> 00:46:44.550
there are a few things goin' on
940
00:46:44.550 --> 00:46:48.213
as far as the popularity of some of these different spots.
941
00:46:49.620 --> 00:46:51.840
And we think it,
942
00:46:51.840 --> 00:46:54.090
we actually have a grad student
943
00:46:54.090 --> 00:46:56.310
who's currently doing a project
944
00:46:56.310 --> 00:46:59.100
kind of looking at some of these habitat characteristics
945
00:46:59.100 --> 00:47:02.940
to see does the habitat look way better
946
00:47:02.940 --> 00:47:06.270
in the sort of more northwestern portions
947
00:47:06.270 --> 00:47:08.430
of the main Hawaiian Islands?
948
00:47:08.430 --> 00:47:11.670
Or is it just that they maybe haven't trickled down
949
00:47:11.670 --> 00:47:15.240
all the way to populate all islands equally?
950
00:47:15.240 --> 00:47:18.617
So that is such a great question that we're actually
951
00:47:18.617 --> 00:47:23.100
working with a clever PhD student to dig deeper into it.
952
00:47:23.100 --> 00:47:27.570
But a couple of the things that I can say for now,
953
00:47:27.570 --> 00:47:30.810
so certainly there's some amount of bias
954
00:47:30.810 --> 00:47:35.220
of places that we can get to and capture a seal safely.
955
00:47:35.220 --> 00:47:37.380
And so you'll see...
956
00:47:37.380 --> 00:47:39.180
Up by Kauai you see a lot of travel
957
00:47:39.180 --> 00:47:40.890
between Kauai and Niihau.
958
00:47:40.890 --> 00:47:43.830
But really we are mostly just doing work on Kauaʻi.
959
00:47:43.830 --> 00:47:46.530
We're not on Niihau very much.
960
00:47:46.530 --> 00:47:48.630
So most of those seals were tagged on Kauaʻi
961
00:47:48.630 --> 00:47:51.783
even if they're going to Niihau as well.
962
00:47:52.758 --> 00:47:56.160
And then you see we tagged some seals on Oʻahu
963
00:47:56.160 --> 00:47:57.360
and on Molokai,
964
00:47:57.360 --> 00:48:00.090
and all of those seals kind of use penguin banks
965
00:48:00.090 --> 00:48:01.890
in between those two islands.
966
00:48:01.890 --> 00:48:06.600
So that kinda shows up as a really popular foraging area.
967
00:48:08.220 --> 00:48:10.080
And then, yeah we do get...
968
00:48:10.080 --> 00:48:13.980
We get a lot fewer monk seal sightings on Maui
969
00:48:13.980 --> 00:48:16.950
and the big island, and so we also haven't had
970
00:48:16.950 --> 00:48:20.460
as many seals that we've put these tracker tags on
971
00:48:20.460 --> 00:48:22.200
over on those islands.
972
00:48:22.200 --> 00:48:24.840
And it could be that seals are just
973
00:48:24.840 --> 00:48:27.450
kind of moving down the chain kinda slowly,
974
00:48:27.450 --> 00:48:29.460
but also it's kinda cool
975
00:48:29.460 --> 00:48:33.690
having this bathymetric map up here,
976
00:48:33.690 --> 00:48:35.460
'cause you can also see,
977
00:48:35.460 --> 00:48:38.910
like with Maui and big island being
978
00:48:38.910 --> 00:48:41.433
the more geologically recent islands,
979
00:48:42.300 --> 00:48:44.670
the areas around them are also quite steep.
980
00:48:44.670 --> 00:48:47.730
So if you think about the monk seal
981
00:48:47.730 --> 00:48:50.580
diving down to forage along the bottom,
982
00:48:50.580 --> 00:48:52.050
and then you get around big island,
983
00:48:52.050 --> 00:48:54.240
and you've got such steep drop-offs.
984
00:48:54.240 --> 00:48:57.420
It doesn't leave maybe as much
985
00:48:57.420 --> 00:48:59.070
ideal foraging space for seals.
986
00:48:59.070 --> 00:49:01.110
So that's kind of one hypothesis.
987
00:49:01.110 --> 00:49:03.780
But yeah, so those are still
988
00:49:03.780 --> 00:49:06.450
not necessarily completely proven,
989
00:49:06.450 --> 00:49:08.370
which of those is more influential,
990
00:49:08.370 --> 00:49:10.740
but kinda the differences in bathymetry
991
00:49:10.740 --> 00:49:13.500
might really influence the habitat available,
992
00:49:13.500 --> 00:49:15.090
and then the distance
993
00:49:15.090 --> 00:49:18.360
and just kind of where seals have stopped and established
994
00:49:18.360 --> 00:49:21.210
as they've moved from the Northwesterns
995
00:49:21.210 --> 00:49:22.863
can be influential as well.
996
00:49:24.060 --> 00:49:25.740
And before I hand it over to Andy,
997
00:49:25.740 --> 00:49:27.810
we had an audience member asking for clarification
998
00:49:27.810 --> 00:49:30.890
on the straight tracking lines versus the...
999
00:49:31.980 --> 00:49:36.150
Yeah those are probably just erroneous points
1000
00:49:36.150 --> 00:49:38.490
that didn't get filtered out.
1001
00:49:38.490 --> 00:49:41.190
So, like probably that,
1002
00:49:41.190 --> 00:49:43.080
where you see like that little triangle
1003
00:49:43.080 --> 00:49:44.550
shoot over to the big island,
1004
00:49:44.550 --> 00:49:47.250
that was probably just an erroneous point,
1005
00:49:47.250 --> 00:49:50.940
and then it bounced back to its other line.
1006
00:49:50.940 --> 00:49:52.440
So, yeah,
1007
00:49:52.440 --> 00:49:55.260
especially being out in the middle of the ocean
1008
00:49:55.260 --> 00:49:57.180
and relatively close to the equator,
1009
00:49:57.180 --> 00:50:00.090
a lot of the satellites we get kind of orbit the poles,
1010
00:50:00.090 --> 00:50:03.930
so the satellites are the most spread out in the tropics,
1011
00:50:03.930 --> 00:50:07.143
and so sometimes we get kinda,
1012
00:50:07.980 --> 00:50:09.300
kinda crummy coverage,
1013
00:50:09.300 --> 00:50:11.370
but it's pretty amazing the amount of coverage
1014
00:50:11.370 --> 00:50:12.960
that we are able to get
1015
00:50:12.960 --> 00:50:14.640
and the detail that we're able to get
1016
00:50:14.640 --> 00:50:15.873
on some of these tracks.
1017
00:50:18.436 --> 00:50:19.290
Great, fantastic.
1018
00:50:19.290 --> 00:50:21.780
And yeah, some of those deeper areas,
1019
00:50:21.780 --> 00:50:25.920
I mean we've found seals that have dove down to 1500 feet?
1020
00:50:25.920 --> 00:50:26.753
Right?
1021
00:50:28.155 --> 00:50:30.360
Five, 600 meters is incredible.
1022
00:50:30.360 --> 00:50:33.390
Definitely most of their foraging happens
1023
00:50:33.390 --> 00:50:35.280
less than 100 meters deep.
1024
00:50:35.280 --> 00:50:39.210
But we have observed seals down as much as,
1025
00:50:39.210 --> 00:50:40.933
yeah, like 500 meters,
1026
00:50:40.933 --> 00:50:45.420
and up in the Northwesterns in one of our tagging projects,
1027
00:50:45.420 --> 00:50:47.370
there were just a couple seals.
1028
00:50:47.370 --> 00:50:48.900
Most of 'em were going more shallow,
1029
00:50:48.900 --> 00:50:51.180
but there were a couple seals that were really specializing
1030
00:50:51.180 --> 00:50:52.890
on some of these real deep shelves
1031
00:50:52.890 --> 00:50:56.010
that were in the 300 meter range.
1032
00:50:56.010 --> 00:50:59.760
So, yeah, most of 'em try to get food as easily as possible,
1033
00:50:59.760 --> 00:51:02.070
but they're all individuals,
1034
00:51:02.070 --> 00:51:04.803
and some have kind of a unique strategy.
1035
00:51:05.910 --> 00:51:06.990
Yeah, that's incredible.
1036
00:51:06.990 --> 00:51:08.700
I mean it's super cold down there,
1037
00:51:08.700 --> 00:51:11.070
almost near freezing and complete darkness.
1038
00:51:11.070 --> 00:51:14.043
So that just shows how the seals can adapt.
1039
00:51:15.180 --> 00:51:17.737
We had one question from Wendy Cover.
1040
00:51:17.737 --> 00:51:21.817
"Are there any estimates of past historic population levels
1041
00:51:21.817 --> 00:51:26.817
"or what baseline levels should be of a healthy population?"
1042
00:51:28.140 --> 00:51:30.123
Yeah, that's a really great point.
1043
00:51:31.680 --> 00:51:36.680
So our baseline is probably,
1044
00:51:38.730 --> 00:51:41.280
kind of mostly based on,
1045
00:51:41.280 --> 00:51:46.020
so we have the earliest sort of beach count data
1046
00:51:46.020 --> 00:51:49.413
that we have, I wanna say was.
1047
00:51:52.963 --> 00:51:53.796
Now I'm gonna...
1048
00:51:53.796 --> 00:51:54.930
I'm blanking on the exact year,
1049
00:51:54.930 --> 00:51:56.399
but I wanna say it was-
1050
00:51:56.399 --> 00:51:57.600
70s.
In the 50s.
1051
00:51:57.600 --> 00:52:00.270
And then it was in the 50s,
1052
00:52:00.270 --> 00:52:02.310
and then in the 60s they did another count
1053
00:52:02.310 --> 00:52:04.760
and realized that they had gone down quite a bit.
1054
00:52:05.970 --> 00:52:10.620
So we kind of have those very first counts
1055
00:52:10.620 --> 00:52:15.620
from when modern folks started doing surveys.
1056
00:52:16.590 --> 00:52:19.860
And so we can estimate based on
1057
00:52:19.860 --> 00:52:21.900
things we've learned since then about kinda
1058
00:52:21.900 --> 00:52:24.420
the probability of seeing a seal on the beach,
1059
00:52:24.420 --> 00:52:27.480
and so extrapolating out how many
1060
00:52:27.480 --> 00:52:29.180
that beach count might have meant.
1061
00:52:30.270 --> 00:52:32.190
So we can get some idea about sort of
1062
00:52:32.190 --> 00:52:34.680
the modern historic numbers,
1063
00:52:34.680 --> 00:52:39.660
and then we can also use genetic data to look at,
1064
00:52:39.660 --> 00:52:41.370
based on the number of seals,
1065
00:52:41.370 --> 00:52:45.060
and then the amount of variation in their genes,
1066
00:52:45.060 --> 00:52:48.540
how many there might have been earlier in history
1067
00:52:48.540 --> 00:52:51.030
and how much the population might have kind of
1068
00:52:51.030 --> 00:52:53.853
gone through a bottleneck as it got really small.
1069
00:52:55.320 --> 00:52:58.710
And then we also have some historical accounts,
1070
00:52:58.710 --> 00:53:02.610
especially from things like whaling captain logbooks,
1071
00:53:02.610 --> 00:53:05.850
and so there are some accounts of
1072
00:53:05.850 --> 00:53:09.176
whaling ships stopping at,
1073
00:53:09.176 --> 00:53:11.790
I forget if it was Laysan Island or Lisianski Island,
1074
00:53:11.790 --> 00:53:15.090
but these log books reported
1075
00:53:15.090 --> 00:53:17.610
taking hundreds of seal pelts,
1076
00:53:17.610 --> 00:53:21.990
like more seal pelts than there are seals now.
1077
00:53:21.990 --> 00:53:25.860
So we definitely know that longer in history
1078
00:53:25.860 --> 00:53:27.510
there were many more seals,
1079
00:53:27.510 --> 00:53:30.150
and then based on some of the counts
1080
00:53:30.150 --> 00:53:32.010
that we've done in more modern times,
1081
00:53:32.010 --> 00:53:34.443
we think there were a few thousand,
1082
00:53:35.370 --> 00:53:40.370
and so we're kind of in the monk seal recovery plan.
1083
00:53:40.830 --> 00:53:45.000
We're targeting more like those modern era numbers,
1084
00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:47.190
'cause that's sort of the most
1085
00:53:47.190 --> 00:53:48.873
that we've been able to observe.
1086
00:53:51.240 --> 00:53:52.530
That would be like 3000?
1087
00:53:52.530 --> 00:53:55.170
Or what would be the target kinda number?
1088
00:53:55.170 --> 00:53:56.073
General number?
1089
00:53:56.940 --> 00:54:00.690
I think, oh gosh...
1090
00:54:00.690 --> 00:54:02.490
Someone correct me if I'm wrong,
1091
00:54:02.490 --> 00:54:04.770
but I'm pretty sure...
1092
00:54:04.770 --> 00:54:08.370
So the goal in the recovery plan,
1093
00:54:08.370 --> 00:54:11.070
I forget if the total is 3000
1094
00:54:11.070 --> 00:54:14.118
or if the Northwestern goal is 3000,
1095
00:54:14.118 --> 00:54:16.200
and then the Main Island's goal was 500.
1096
00:54:16.200 --> 00:54:17.720
But they're also doing...
1097
00:54:18.840 --> 00:54:22.170
Our last revision of the recovery plan was in 2007,
1098
00:54:22.170 --> 00:54:23.700
and they're doing a current revision.
1099
00:54:23.700 --> 00:54:27.450
So, especially considering climate change impacts
1100
00:54:27.450 --> 00:54:30.630
in the Northwesterns, I don't...
1101
00:54:30.630 --> 00:54:35.370
And just changes in the population in the Northwesterns
1102
00:54:35.370 --> 00:54:36.870
and Main, I don't know if those numbers
1103
00:54:36.870 --> 00:54:38.460
will stay the same forever,
1104
00:54:38.460 --> 00:54:41.853
but I think that was what was in the 2007 recovery plan.
1105
00:54:42.870 --> 00:54:44.070
Okay, thank you.
1106
00:54:44.070 --> 00:54:46.350
Well Justin, I think one more question,
1107
00:54:46.350 --> 00:54:49.290
and then we've got to kinda wrap it up.
1108
00:54:49.290 --> 00:54:50.640
All right, I'm getting lost,
1109
00:54:50.640 --> 00:54:52.680
there are so many good questions.
1110
00:54:52.680 --> 00:54:56.610
And I just noticed that the education coordinator
1111
00:54:56.610 --> 00:54:59.250
from Ke Kai Ola, Wendy Marks, is on.
1112
00:54:59.250 --> 00:55:00.360
Oh cool.
1113
00:55:00.360 --> 00:55:03.060
I don't see her question, so I guess I'll have to,
1114
00:55:03.060 --> 00:55:04.310
that'll be for you later.
1115
00:55:05.550 --> 00:55:10.550
Let me see, there were some questions about the sharks,
1116
00:55:10.650 --> 00:55:13.163
and sort of how...
1117
00:55:13.163 --> 00:55:15.913
Well, I'll try to paraphrase 'cause there are multiple.
1118
00:55:19.290 --> 00:55:22.680
Is it legal to be removing some of the sharks?
1119
00:55:22.680 --> 00:55:27.680
And then kind of what's the current status of that strategy?
1120
00:55:28.290 --> 00:55:29.123
Sure.
1121
00:55:30.110 --> 00:55:33.510
So yeah, so it's definitely not legal
1122
00:55:33.510 --> 00:55:37.920
for just anyone to go remove animals
1123
00:55:37.920 --> 00:55:39.630
without permits and things like that.
1124
00:55:39.630 --> 00:55:42.990
So we've worked really closely with the state of Hawai'i
1125
00:55:42.990 --> 00:55:45.990
and the Land Board to obtain permits
1126
00:55:45.990 --> 00:55:47.820
for those shark removal efforts
1127
00:55:47.820 --> 00:55:51.210
and part of that process of sort of
1128
00:55:51.210 --> 00:55:53.220
obtaining approval for that is
1129
00:55:53.220 --> 00:55:55.440
the really careful work and strategy
1130
00:55:55.440 --> 00:55:56.760
that has gone behind it.
1131
00:55:56.760 --> 00:55:59.730
So we don't have a permit to just
1132
00:55:59.730 --> 00:56:03.930
wholesale remove all kinds of sharks, as many as we want.
1133
00:56:03.930 --> 00:56:08.280
I believe our permit is only up to 20 sharks,
1134
00:56:08.280 --> 00:56:10.140
and then we would reevaluate the permit
1135
00:56:10.140 --> 00:56:12.390
if we got up to 20 sharks.
1136
00:56:12.390 --> 00:56:16.050
But we certainly haven't up to this point.
1137
00:56:16.050 --> 00:56:18.390
And part of the reason we don't take that many
1138
00:56:18.390 --> 00:56:21.660
is because we have a very targeted removal scheme.
1139
00:56:21.660 --> 00:56:24.300
So we don't even fish for sharks
1140
00:56:24.300 --> 00:56:28.320
unless we have seen shark predation on pups.
1141
00:56:28.320 --> 00:56:32.070
And so at the point where our field technicians out there
1142
00:56:32.070 --> 00:56:33.630
are seeing predation on pups,
1143
00:56:33.630 --> 00:56:35.220
then that kind of triggers
1144
00:56:35.220 --> 00:56:37.500
keeping a closer watch for sharks,
1145
00:56:37.500 --> 00:56:39.960
and so it's really just Galapagos sharks,
1146
00:56:39.960 --> 00:56:43.080
'cause they're the ones that come in close to get the seals,
1147
00:56:43.080 --> 00:56:44.895
and then they really only target
1148
00:56:44.895 --> 00:56:48.690
fishing very close to the islands where the pups are
1149
00:56:48.690 --> 00:56:50.703
and where pups have been degradated on,
1150
00:56:52.080 --> 00:56:53.790
and then yeah, so they're really targeting
1151
00:56:53.790 --> 00:56:55.920
the sharks that are specifically coming into
1152
00:56:55.920 --> 00:56:59.280
the shallows to predate on seal pups,
1153
00:56:59.280 --> 00:57:00.850
and so that ends up being
1154
00:57:01.830 --> 00:57:04.500
not an efficient way to take out a bunch of sharks,
1155
00:57:04.500 --> 00:57:07.560
but it's a very targeted way to take out the sharks
1156
00:57:07.560 --> 00:57:09.870
that are specifically competing
1157
00:57:09.870 --> 00:57:12.150
with this endangered species.
1158
00:57:12.150 --> 00:57:13.950
And yeah so the justification there,
1159
00:57:13.950 --> 00:57:15.480
it's always kind of hard to think about
1160
00:57:15.480 --> 00:57:18.300
taking one species for the benefit of the other,
1161
00:57:18.300 --> 00:57:22.380
but it's really based on what the populations can sustain.
1162
00:57:22.380 --> 00:57:25.710
Whereas the shark population is sustainable
1163
00:57:25.710 --> 00:57:28.380
even if it loses a few sharks,
1164
00:57:28.380 --> 00:57:30.690
but the monk population is not sustainable
1165
00:57:30.690 --> 00:57:33.087
if it loses 20% of the pups (indistinct).
1166
00:57:37.290 --> 00:57:39.213
Okay, great, thank you.
1167
00:57:40.513 --> 00:57:41.630
Stacie, thank you.
Thank you, guys,
1168
00:57:41.630 --> 00:57:43.917
for such good questions.
Yeah,
1169
00:57:43.917 --> 00:57:46.050
and thank you, Rhonda, for providing
1170
00:57:46.050 --> 00:57:47.460
the American Sign Language.
1171
00:57:47.460 --> 00:57:51.840
That's a really nice addition to our program here today.
1172
00:57:51.840 --> 00:57:55.470
So I just have a few closing slides for us.
1173
00:57:55.470 --> 00:57:58.140
This webinar is being recorded,
1174
00:57:58.140 --> 00:58:01.080
and once we get it captioned we will be,
1175
00:58:01.080 --> 00:58:04.470
we'll post it through that archive page you see there.
1176
00:58:04.470 --> 00:58:07.140
We have many, many other great webinars up there.
1177
00:58:07.140 --> 00:58:09.450
You could practically take the university course
1178
00:58:09.450 --> 00:58:13.380
in Papahānaumokuākea in Hawai'i natural history
1179
00:58:13.380 --> 00:58:15.240
by viewing those webinars.
1180
00:58:15.240 --> 00:58:16.890
So I encourage you to check it out,
1181
00:58:16.890 --> 00:58:19.890
and everybody that registered will get an email
1182
00:58:19.890 --> 00:58:22.590
about that the presentation is available.
1183
00:58:22.590 --> 00:58:26.250
So it takes us about 10 days to get that up.
1184
00:58:26.250 --> 00:58:29.160
You will also get a certificate of attendance
1185
00:58:29.160 --> 00:58:32.250
for one hour professional development for this webinar.
1186
00:58:32.250 --> 00:58:35.130
We'll be sending that out via email.
1187
00:58:35.130 --> 00:58:37.800
And some things that are coming up is that
1188
00:58:37.800 --> 00:58:40.470
the Exploration Vessel Nautilus will be
1189
00:58:40.470 --> 00:58:43.200
in Papahānaumokuākea later this year,
1190
00:58:43.200 --> 00:58:46.590
but they just left Honolulu Harbor for a really cool
1191
00:58:46.590 --> 00:58:49.650
expedition down to Kingman Reef and Palmyra,
1192
00:58:49.650 --> 00:58:52.410
and they are en route there now.
1193
00:58:52.410 --> 00:58:54.660
So definitely check out Nautilus Live.
1194
00:58:54.660 --> 00:58:57.840
If you're a teacher, sign up for a classroom interaction.
1195
00:58:57.840 --> 00:58:59.790
There'll be several missions over the course
1196
00:58:59.790 --> 00:59:01.560
of the rest of this year,
1197
00:59:01.560 --> 00:59:03.390
and we work closely with Nautilus,
1198
00:59:03.390 --> 00:59:05.910
and we also have a really unique partnership
1199
00:59:05.910 --> 00:59:08.730
of creating Aloha Hawai'i,
1200
00:59:08.730 --> 00:59:10.440
or Hawaiian culture and language,
1201
00:59:10.440 --> 00:59:12.570
resources for these expeditions,
1202
00:59:12.570 --> 00:59:14.910
naming these expeditions, and other things.
1203
00:59:14.910 --> 00:59:18.330
So if you are a immersion school teacher our other thing
1204
00:59:18.330 --> 00:59:20.040
is definitely something you want
1205
00:59:20.040 --> 00:59:22.320
to check out with your class.
1206
00:59:22.320 --> 00:59:24.475
So please take a look at that.
1207
00:59:24.475 --> 00:59:28.950
We do not have our next webinar for June scheduled yet,
1208
00:59:28.950 --> 00:59:32.250
but you'll get an email for that soon.
1209
00:59:32.250 --> 00:59:34.316
And also if you are in Hilo,
1210
00:59:34.316 --> 00:59:36.780
we have a really cool event this week,
1211
00:59:36.780 --> 00:59:41.070
World Bee Day on Saturday, 10 to 2 p.m.,
1212
00:59:41.070 --> 00:59:42.720
so please come down and celebrate
1213
00:59:42.720 --> 00:59:44.430
the pollinators in our lives
1214
00:59:44.430 --> 00:59:47.330
and what honeybees can do for us.
1215
00:59:47.330 --> 00:59:51.600
Lastly, we do like you to take the survey at the end.
1216
00:59:51.600 --> 00:59:53.790
This is how we evaluate our webinars
1217
00:59:53.790 --> 00:59:55.710
and how we can find out if there are
1218
00:59:55.710 --> 00:59:58.590
other things that you'd like to hear during these webinars.
1219
00:59:58.590 --> 01:00:00.990
So, please take that survey.
1220
01:00:00.990 --> 01:00:05.130
It's very important for us evaluating these programs.
1221
01:00:05.130 --> 01:00:06.990
And that is it for today.
1222
01:00:06.990 --> 01:00:08.790
Again, mahalo, Stacie,
1223
01:00:08.790 --> 01:00:10.890
mahalo Rhonda, Justin, everybody
1224
01:00:10.890 --> 01:00:13.080
for supporting these webinars,
1225
01:00:13.080 --> 01:00:15.750
and have a great rest of your day.
1226
01:00:15.750 --> 01:00:17.190
Aloha.
1227
01:00:17.190 --> 01:00:18.900
Thanks, Andy.
1228
01:00:18.900 --> 01:00:19.733
Thank you.