a lie perpetuated by environmental groups,” Kawika
Cutcher testified at a September 2011 public hearing
on Kauai regarding federal proposals to relocate some
of the seals to the main islands. “There’s no mention of
it in Hawaiian history.”
“I think they just branded it,” Kenika Matsuda
protested. “Who gave them the name Hawaiian monk
seal?” Kimo Rose asked at another hearing. “Where’s
the proof?”
A NOAA Fisheries Service 2011 survey of
beachgoers and fishers in Hawaii found that 62 percent
of those asked believe that monk seals are a native
species, while 38 percent either do not believe that or
are unsure. Other islanders recognize monk seals as
Hawaiian but consider them indigenous only to the
uninhabited NWHI and not to the inhabited MHI.
Some locals, however, recognize the Hawaiian monk
seal as an indigenous rather than invasive species. “We
grew up with monk seals. They were just rare, that’s all,”
Hawaiian activist Walter Ritte explained. “The people
who were killing them for oil did a pretty good job.
There was a period of time that when you saw a monk
seal, it was a big deal. I remember that when I was
growing up word would spread that there was a monk
seal on the beach, and a lot of people would come and
look. They’re making a comeback now, so people are
not used to having them around.”
Hawaiian cultural and environmental consultant
Trisha Kehaulani Watson maintains a website, www.
nameahulu.org, where she lists evidence that monk
seals were found in the MHI from the precontact period
through the 19
th
and 20
th
centuries. The evidence includes
Hawaiian chants, traditional stories, seal-inspired place
names, old Hawaiian-language newspapers, journals from
visiting ships, Hawaiian families who consider the seals
to be “aumakua” (divine ancestors) and archaeological
discoveries of seal bones in Hawaiian refuse piles from
both pre- and postcontact periods.
Biologists say that Hawaiian monk seals are very
distinct from other monk seals. A 2014 research article
in ZooKeys (Scheel, Slater, Kolokotronis, et al.) places
Hawaiian and Caribbean monk seals in a separate genus
|
109
Right: A male monk seal spyhops to check the
beach for females in the NWHI.
Below: A monk seal trying to rest on a beach near Kihei,
Maui, is surrounded by curious onlookers, some of whom
breached the safety zone and approached the seal.
