Hawaii FEP - Western Pacific Fishery Council

The 2004 U.S. Pacific Marine Mammal Stock Assessment estimates that there are 1,304 monkseals in the Hawaiian Islands, with at least 52 of those occurring in the Main Hawaiian Islands(NOAA 2005). There was an exceptional reporting of a pupping at Johnston Atoll in 1969;however, site visits by biologists have been infrequent and it is not known how regularly monkseals use the atoll.Aggressive male monk seals in the NWHI are known to mob females and sometimes kill pups.Mobbing behavior is thought to occur due to a skewed sex ratio, and 22 subadult males weretranslocated from Laysan Island in the NWHI to the Big Island in the MHI in 1994. In 1998, twomales were identified as aggressive at French Frigate Shoals. They were translocated to JohnstonAtoll in 1999 and were resighted at that location for a few months, although they have not beenresighted recently.At one time it was believed that NWHI lobsters were an important part of the diet of monk sealsand this concern may have contributed to the closure of the NWHI lobster fishery. However, anongoing analysis of fatty acid signatures in monk seal blubber indicates that lobster andcrustaceans in general do not appear to be very important to monk seals as there are species ofNWHI lobsters in relatively high abundance but monk seals are not eating them (PIFSC ScientistCharles Littnan in the Honolulu Advertiser, December 1, 2006).Other Marine MammalsTable 7 lists known non-ESA listed marine mammals that occur in the Western Pacific Region.Table 7: Non-ESA Listed Marine Mammals of the Western PacificCommon Name Scientific Name Common Name Scientific NameBlainsville beakedwhaleMesoplodondensirostrispygmy sperm whaleKogia brevicepsbottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus Risso’s dolphin Grampus griseusBryde’s whale Balaenoptera edeni rough-toothed dolphin Steno bredanensisCuvier’s beakedwhaleZiphius cavirostrisshort-finned pilotwhaleGlobicephalamacrorhynchusdwarf sperm whale Kogia simus spinner dolphin Stenella longirostrisfalse killer whale Pseudorca crassidens spotted dolphin Stenella attenuatakiller whale Orcinus orca striped dolphin Stenella coeruleoalbamelon-headed whalePeponocephalaelectraPacific white-sideddolphinLagenorhynchusobliquidenspygmy killer whale Feresa attenuata minke whale Balaenopteraacutorostrata80