Impact!

Monk Seal

Ioio-holo-i-ka-uaua

(dog that runs in rough water)

by Aran Self

My first experience with a Hawaiian monk seal that I can remember, was on the south shore of Kauai. I think I was 9 and my brother was 10. My mom my brother and I went down to the beach when we got down to the beach we saw signs and a rope that went around all the signs. we went up to the rope and saw a Hawaiian monk seal siting on the beach. everyone was staring at it, my brother and I looked at it, it rose it’s small head and then it went “pphhttt” at us. My mom said it gave us a raspberry, my brother and I thought that was hilarious.

Another time I saw a Hawaiian monk seal, there was no ropes around it. This was on the north shore of Kauai, I don’t think the the Kauai monk seal watch program goes down the the north shore that much. we went over to the Hawaiian monk and we took pictures of it and pictures of us near it after we were done taking pictures we got up and a guy kicked sand in it’s face, and walked off laughing, the monk seal started spiting out sand and sneezing then it went “pphhttt” and laid back down. what a jerk that guy was, I thought to my self.

When I got to Kauai this year, my dad and I went past a Hawaiian monk seal laying on the beach. We stopped to a look at it. My dad stayed in the car while I went over to get a closer look at it. She was really big female monk seal, she was sleeping on the beach. I walked up to the rope that was around her. she had a lot of scratches and scares on her, they looked like they were from sharks.

One time I went to the south shore to look at a Hawaiian monk seal. we walked to the signs. we saw monk seal tracks that went down to the water at the end of the path there a Hawaiian monk seal about to go in the water. It looked like a young male monk seal. It rolled in to the water before we could get a good picture. A lady from the Kauai monk seal watch program came to pick up the rope and the bottle the rope was tied to. But when the lady tried to pull the bottle out of the water but it wouldn’t move then we saw why. The monk seal was holding on to the bottle. The

lady let go of the rope and the monk seal came up and went “art-art, pphhttt”.

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