The Odyssey of KP2
Page 23
• • •
THE FEDERAL AGENCY charged with managing the Hawaiian monk seal continues to struggle. As of this writing, the hopes of NMFS scientists to translocate young monk seals to the main Hawaiian Islands were dashed by public and political outcry, and a slashed research budget. The idea has been shelved for the immediate future, although Keith Robinson’s proposal to place the monk seals in Niihau is still being discussed. Both the NMFS and the Hawaiian community are looking for creative solutions for restoring trust in one another.
As we had hoped, KP2 has become an integral part of that creative solution. In the same month that NMFS put their translocation plans on hold, KP2 passed his quarantine exam and was finally placed on exhibit at the Waikiki Aquarium. Unlike his poolmate Maka‘onaona, who ignores shouting visitors, KP2 has embraced his ambassadorial role. He loves the large glass-fronted pool that offers a window on the human world. On any day he can be seen sunbathing, surfing along his pool, and smashing his giant whiskered muzzle into any hand pressed on the opposite side of the glass, to the delight of both adults and children. Despite my early concerns about his class-clown character, he has matured into the ideal boisterous spokesseal for the oceans and for a species in trouble.
• • •
THERE HAS ALSO BEEN a glimmer of hope for KP2’s wild family.
On April 25, 2011, one week before KP2’s third birthday, RK22 again returned to North Larsen’s Beach in Kauai. Heavy in pregnancy, she dragged her body onto the warm sands that were once the site of KP2’s tumultuous beginnings. His mother gave birth to his newest sibling in the same manner as she had with him and his sister—slippery, wet, and sliding unceremoniously from between her back flippers.
This time, she did not attack or swim off. For the first time in her life, she stayed.
As observers for the Kauai Monk Seal Team once again looked on, RK22 became a vigilant and courageous mother, protecting her new pup from all intruders. She rebuked the marauding males patrolling the waters in hopes of mating with her. She moved her pup down the beach on several occasions to avoid the prying eyes of curious humans.
As for all Hawaiian monk seal mothers, the period of bonding was short. By the time the celebration for KP2’s arrival back in the islands had become a memory, PK1 was weaned and learning to fend for himself in the waters around Kauai. Their mother had mated and was already at sea restoring her body for next year’s pup in the cycle of life that was a female’s destiny.
• • •
RK22, THE PURPORTED Bad Mother of Kauai, had finally successfully reared a pup. She had produced a brother for the ambassador of their species living at the Waikiki Aquarium. The two siblings would never meet and yet were intimately connected by their biology. One brother would spend his life enjoying the wild waters of Hawaii while the other would live among people to help protect the waters where his brother played.
Acknowledgments
The idea for this book evolved during an unsettled November that began with my first meeting with KP2 at the Waikiki Aquarium and ended with an extraordinary Thanksgiving drive with him through a maze of Los Angeles highways. Proving that brilliant literary agents possess extrasensory perception, Noah Lukeman e-mailed to ask what I was up to. Clearly, big adventures were afoot. At the time, I had no idea where the journey would take the orphaned seal now in my care. Nor did I know how our story would unfold. One thing was apparent: Hawaiian monk seals were in trouble and my team would be consumed with trying to save them during the foreseeable future.
With little more than that spark, Virginia (Ginny) Smith at The Penguin Press agreed to join Noah and me on our journey with KP2. In addition to being a remarkable editor, Ginny was a welcomed, calm harbor during the stormiest periods of KP2’s odyssey. With her assistant, Mally Anderson, Ginny graciously guided me through the transition from scientific writer to storyteller. She and Mally did this with the skill of experienced animal trainers, using a combination of firmness, fairness, and a biscuit reward in the end. They clearly demonstrated that an old dog can learn new tricks and I will forever be grateful for the lessons.
One could not have asked for a better crew to share KP2’s oceanic message with the world. In their unique ways Noah, Ginny, and Mally have helped to save this endangered species.
It is unfortunate that a book can have only so many pages; by necessity, numerous stories and people had to be left behind. Despite being an orphan, KP2 was blessed with an extended human family that played a major part in his odyssey. Some I met, others were simply legends. All were part of this story even if not mentioned by name. They include islanders from Kauai (Mary and Barry Werthwine), Molokai (Val Bloy, Diane Pike, Julie Lopez, Uncle Walter and Aunt Loretta Ritte, Karen Holt), and Oahu (the members of the Hawaii Monk Seal Recovery Team Oahu with Donna Festa, Sharon Cosma, Jennifer Caswell, Rafe Maldonado, Dana Jones, Robert and Barbara Billand, who introduced me to wild monks, DB Dunlap, Kathy and Jim Brown, Barbara and Ralph Allen, Karen Bryan, Karen Rohter, Diane Gabriel, Stacey Stella, Lesley Macpherson, Anthony Querubin, and Dr. Gregg Levine), as well as the members of the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, California. The U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Navy (especially Mark Xitco), the U.S. Marine Corps, and the 446th Airlift Wing Air Force Reserve were KP2’s military family. Rounding out his government-associated siblings were Jeff Walters, Dera Look, Trisha Kehaulani Watson, and the Maryland-based Office of Protected Resources. KP2’s California family was made up of the student volunteers at the heart of my Marine Mammal Physiology Project that included Ashley Hyde-Smith, Hillary Mills, Bryan Tom, Kristen Elsmore, Courtney Roth, Megan Reis, Val Lew, Andy Garcia, Donna Beckett, Krysta Walker, Andrea Gomez, Katie Lorenz, Emily Trumbull, Hershel Krom, Christina Doll, Chelsea Aydelott, Ben Weitzman, Rachel Tolliver, Nick Alcaraz, Caitlin Carrington, Margaret Cummings, Meagan Davis, Maia Goguen, Meghan MacGregor, Audrey Fry, Hannah Ban-Weiss, Shusuke Aihara, Hilary Walecka, Heather Tyler, Breanna Beck, Ryan Stephenson, Brett Banka, Sasha Curtis, Courtney Ribeiro-French, and many others over the years. They all worked alongside Beau and Traci, each spending long nights and even longer days caring for every need and thawing every fish for KP2. Peter Read and the Otter Cove Foundation helped to keep KP2 in fish for his two years with us and allowed me to take a risk with this endangered seal. You are all the future of this planet.
Ultimately, KP2 found a new home and a happy ending to his odyssey at the Waikiki Aquarium. I especially thank Andy Rossiter for taking the risk and Leah Kissel for taking KP2 under her training wing.
The final thank-you goes to Jim, who is on the last page but remains first in my heart (with Bart, Devon, Badger, and Kiska, of course!).
Additional Reading and Resources
GETTING INVOLVED
By reading this book, you have already begun to help the Hawaiian monk seal. Part of the proceeds from The Odyssey of KP2 will go directly to support Hawaiian monk seal research and public outreach at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Additional information about supporting marine mammal conservation and research can be found at www.mmpp.ucsc.edu.
WEB SITES
KP2 Web site: www.monkseal.ucsc.edu.
KP2 Facebook: Ho‘ailona Monk Seal (Kptwo Monk Seal).
Terrie Williams Lab: http://bio.research.ucsc.edu/people/williams.
Hawaiian Monk Seal Response Team Oahu (HMSRTO): http://hmsrto.org.
Monachus Guardian: www.monachus-guardian.org.
Endangered Species
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (2011): http://www.iucnredlist.org.
MONK SEAL BIOLOGY AND CONSERVATION
L. R. Gerber et al. (2011). Managing for extinction? Conflicting conservation objectives in a large marine reserve. Conservation Letters 4(6): 417–422.
National Marine Fisheries Service (2007). Recovery Plan for the Hawaiian Monk Seal (Monachus schauinslandi), second re
vision. National Marine Fisheries Service, Silver Spring, MD. 165 pp.
Pacific Islands Region Marine Mammal Response Network Activity Update, 2008. May–August, 9.
T. M. Williams et al. (2011). “Metabolic demands of a tropical marine carnivore, the Hawaiian monk seal (Monachus schauinslandi): Implications for fisheries competition.” Aquatic Mammals 37(3): 372–76.
HUMANS AND ANIMALS
M. W. Cawthron (1994). “Seal finger and mycobacterial infections of man from marine mammals: Occurrence, infection and treatment.” Conservation Advisory Science Notes 102, Department of Conservation, Wellington, NZ. 15 pp.
J. A. Serpell (2002). “Anthropomorphism and anthropomorphic selection: Beyond the ‘cute response.’” Society and Animals 10(4): 437–54.
MONK SEAL EVOLUTION AND ORIGINS
C. A. Fyler et al. (2005). “Historical biogeography and phylogeny of monachine seals (Pinnipedia: Phocidae) based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA.” Journal of Biogeography 32: 1267–79.
Homer, Odyssey, trans. W. Shewring. Oxford’s World Classics, Book 4. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
W. M. Johnson et al. (2011). “Mediterranean monk seal (Monachus monachus).” Monachus-guardian.org.
C. B. Stringer et al. (2008). “Neanderthal exploitation of marine mammals in Gibraltar.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105(38): 14319–24.
MARINE POLLUTION AND MICRONUTRIENT CYCLING
O. J. Dameron et al. (2007). “Marine debris accumulation in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands: An examination of rates and processes.” Marine Pollution Bulletin 54(4): 423–33.
J. R. Henderson (2001). “A pre- and post-MARPOL Annex V summary of Hawaiian monk seal entanglements and marine debris accumulation in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, 1982–1998.” Marine Pollution Bulletin 42(7): 584–89.
T. J. Lavery (2010). “Iron defecation by sperm whales stimulates carbon export in the Southern Ocean.” Proceedings of the Royal Society, B doi:10.1098/rspb.2010.0863.
Index
The page numbers in this index refer to the printed version of this book. To find the corresponding locations in the text of this digital version, please use the “search” function on your e-reader. Note that not all terms may be searchable.
Abell, Darrin, 51
Abraham, Diane, 244–45
Aiona, James “Duke,” 212
Alaska, 161, 239, 242
animal
behavior, 15, 78, 137
communication, 3–5, 15, 55, 68–69, 137
conservation, 61–62, 88
“cute response,” 128–29
intelligence, 35, 39, 145–46, 149–50, 154
preservation, 15, 52–53, 88, 130–31, 261
rights movement, 62
survival, 61, 128, 243
training, 26, 76, 136–40, 153, 155, 157
Animal Liberation Front, 62
Año Nuevo State Reserve (California), 182
Antarctica, 13–16, 19–21, 39–40, 50, 53–54, 57–58, 77–79, 106, 157, 173, 177, 181, 228, 239. See also McMurdo Station; Weddell seal expedition; Weddell seals
aquariums, 95, 97, 128–29, 189–90, 210–11, 249. See also specific names
Arctic, 130, 239
beach clean-up, 241, 243–48, 252, 264
Bengston, Penni, 197–98
Big Island, Hawaii, 119, 167, 245, 257
biologists, 11, 22, 62, 87, 89
Blumenthal, George, 193
Braun, Bob, 28
Brown, Jerry, 193
Burnyce (elephant seal), 182–83
Bush, George W., 169
Cambell, Jessica, 243–44, 246–47
Canadian seal hunts, 129–30
Caribbean monk seal, 126–27, 214–16
Casper, Dave, 82–83, 95–96, 115
CBS News, 25, 49
climate change, 87, 151, 165, 178, 222–23
Colitz, Carmen, 230
conservation
areas, 168–69
of endangered species, 203–4, 218–19
of marine mammals, 22–23, 51, 124
and Molokai children, 252
of monk seals, 27, 56, 168–69, 174, 212, 218–20, 252–53, 261, 263–64
movement, 129–30
of oceans/beaches, 245–48
See also Worldwide Waste Reduction Day
Coronado, California, 72
Crary Science and Engineering Center (Antarctica), 33
See also McMurdo Station, Antarctica
Davis, Kanoe, 68
Deepwater Horizon spill, 248
Demmers, Alona, 46
diseases, 43, 48, 53, 92–95, 112, 127
DNA, 214, 217, 260
Doll, Christina, 75–76, 79–80, 83
Dolphin Systems program, 34–36, 69–72, 76–77, 89–90, 114, 122, 233
dolphins, 7, 22, 162, 172
ancestors of, 213, 215, 217
intelligence of, 39, 145–46, 149
at Long Marine Lab, 77, 93–94, 112, 114, 121–22, 124, 128, 140, 183, 185, 258
and marine pollution, 232
as mine-hunters, 34–36, 70–71, 77, 121–22, 146
and motherhood, 198
stranding of, 9, 77
study of, 35, 52, 63, 87–88, 124, 145–49, 153
swimming prowess of, 227
training of, 21, 26, 114, 119, 145–50
See also Dolphin Systems program
ecosystems, 165–66, 177, 219, 222–23
encephalization quotient (EQ), 145
endangered species, 40, 61–62, 93, 159
and “cute response,” 128–29
the harp and fur seals, 129–30
laws for, 72, 212
the Mediterranean monk seal, 216, 254
the Hawaiian monk seals, 21, 23–24, 26–27, 51–52, 56, 77–79, 95, 126–28, 130–31, 243–44, 250
saving of, 27, 35, 40, 88, 203–4, 250
the sea otters, 243–44
Endangered Species Act, 72
Endurance expedition, 15
environmental
connectedness, 247
movement, 128
respect/responsibility, 261
euthanasia, 52–53, 78, 124, 211, 226, 254, 261, 264
extinct species, 126–27, 216
Exxon Valdez oil spill, 53, 232–33, 242
Facebook, 178–79, 186–87, 209, 211, 241
Farry, Shawn, 10–11
Fed Ex, 53, 70
Festa, Donna, 186, 189–90
fish stocks, 152, 161, 176, 218–19
fishermen, 177–78, 187, 221, 260–61
kill predatory fish, 170
monk seals compete with, 127, 152, 161, 165
opposed to monk seals, 46–47, 51, 165–67, 171–72, 212, 215, 251–52
protect monk seals, 218–19, 263
fishing, 215, 218
commercial, 165–66, 169–70, 176, 252
to excess, 78, 161, 178
gear/nets of, 231–32, 237–39
grounds, 222, 252
impact of, 219
recreational, 165–66, 169–70, 176
food webs, 221–22
Freedom of Information Act, 91–92
French Frigate Shoals, 105, 169
global warming, 130, 222
Goodall, Jane, 89
GPS technology, 19, 44
Great Pacific Garbage Patch, 242–43
Greece, 212, 217, 219
Greek mythology, 217–19
Gulland, Frances, 28
habitats, 10, 14, 16, 22, 78, 8
7, 127, 160–61, 254, 264
Hawaii
and animal blessings, 234, 237
chanters of, 198–99, 205–6
history of, 43, 92–93, 214–16, 219–20
KP2 special to, 59
KP2’s return to, 42–43, 205–6, 209–11, 225–26, 229–31
and nature/culture connection, 177–79
and people/ocean relationship, 250
and people/seals relationship, 166–68, 170–71, 174–75, 177–78, 187, 223
state mammal of, 253
and storytelling tradition, 178
Hawaiian Islands, 78, 170, 214–15, 220, 245, 251–52, 264. See also specific islands
Hawaiian Monk Seal Recovery Team, 44, 51, 60, 69, 131, 168, 210, 259
Hawaiian Monk Seal Response Team Oahu (HMSRTO), 186, 189–90
Hawaiian monk seals. See monk seals
Herring, Chris, 49
Hickam Air Force Base (Oahu), 70–71
Ho‘ailona. See KP2: Hawaiian name of
Holt, Karen, 251–52
Homer’s Odyssey, 217–19
Honolulu Advertiser, 58
Honolulu, Hawaii, 9, 28, 44, 49, 57–58, 68, 71, 138, 220
Ho‘omana Hou School (Hawaii), 174
human activity/disturbance, 78, 87, 131, 160, 219
Humane Society, 62
International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), 127, 130
Kahawaii, Barbara Jean, 245
“Kahi” Kalaekahi (Molokai boy), 45, 47, 68–69
Kaiwi Channel, 44
Kalaupapa Peninsula, 42–44, 46, 49, 92
Kamehameha the Great, 215, 219
Kamehameha V, King, 220
Kaneohe Bay, 125, 146–47