Endangered Hawaiian monk seal population rises to 1,400

FILE -This August 2016 file photo provided by the National Marine Fisheries Service shows a prematurely weaned Hawaiian monk seal pup being restrained by a veterinarian so he may be fed a mashed fish formula aboard the research vessel Oscar Elton Sette in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. Federal wildlife biologists say the population of endangered Hawaiian monk seals has grown 3 percent a year for the past three years. (National Marine Fisheries Service via AP) FILE -This August 2016 file photo provided by the National Marine Fisheries Service shows a prematurely weaned Hawaiian monk seal pup being restrained by a veterinarian so he may be fed a mashed fish formula aboard the research vessel Oscar Elton Sette in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. Federal wildlife biologists say the population of endangered Hawaiian monk seals has grown 3 percent a year for the past three years. (National Marine Fisheries Service via AP)

By Associated Press January 25, 2017 2 min read

HONOLULU (AP) – The population of Hawaiian monk seals – one of the world’s most critically endangered marine mammals – has been increasing 3 percent a year for the past three years, federal wildlife officials said.

There are now about 1,400 of the seals in the wild, said Charles Littnan, lead scientist of the Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“This is phenomenal, hopeful news for the population,” Littnan said Tuesday. “Yet we have a long way to go to recovery.”

The population has experienced increases in the past, including the mid-2000s, but Littnan characterized those as minor blips.

Hawaiian monk seals declined in numbers for years, most recently as juveniles struggled to compete for food with large fish and sharks in the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, a mostly uninhabited stretch of tiny atolls that includes Midway.