The Marine Institute at Maui Ocean Center is partnering with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on the Maui Monk Seal Response Program, which will have a team of trained volunteers and staff to receive reports of monk seal sightings, respond to haul-outs, molting and pupping events, conduct public outreach and assist with interventions when necessary. Courtesy photo

The Maui Ocean Center Marine Institute is working to help establish a Maui Monk Seal Response Program on the Valley Isle.

Center officials say the program will strengthen its outreach and education efforts under an agreement with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. Similar agreements have boosted the center’s recovery efforts with sea turtles and coral.

“This collaboration represents an exciting new chapter for marine conservation on Maui,” said Dustin Paradis, executive director of the Marine Institute.

Paradis said NOAA approached the Institute with the idea, and they are honored to work alongside NOAA’s Pacific Islands Regional Office, the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources and the Native Hawaiian community.

The announcement comes as the number of monk seals are increasing in the main Hawaiian islands with 35 pups so far in 2025, including four of whom required life-saving care and nourishment at the Marine Mammal Center hospital at Ke Kai Ola in Kona.

More than a decade ago, federal officials relocated some juvenile monk seals from the northwestern Hawaiian Islands to the main islands to improve their chances of survival. In 2006, their numbers were estimated at 1,208 in the northwestern and main Hawaiian islands and decreasing at a rate of 4% per year. The total population was about 1,600 in 2024, compared to 1,435 in 2019, according to NOAA.

The number of endangered Hawaiian monk seals born in the main Hawaiian islands is growing, based on data provided to the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, which reported 34 pups were born in the main Hawaiian islands in 2024.

NOAA said that from 2013 to 2021, the monk seal population grew at an average rate of 2% per year, providing hope for the species’ long-term recovery.

The Marine Institute has a team of trained volunteers and staff to respond to monk seal strandings or injuries. Another major role for the institute is to provide education, such as informing the public about maintaining a safe distance of 50 feet from a monk seal and 150 feet from a monk seal with a pup.

The public is encouraged to report all monk seal sightings and emergencies to the statewide NOAA Marine Wildlife Hotline at (888) 256-9840. On Maui, reports can also be made directly to the Maui Monk Seal Response Hotline at (808) 292-2372.