Hawaiian Monk Seal
Neomonachus schauinslandi
The dog that runs in rough water — and one of the rarest seals on Earth.
There are only about 1,600 Hawaiian monk seals in the entire world, and they exist nowhere else. They are one of the very last monk seals left — their Caribbean cousin was declared extinct in 2008.
On the conservation status
Numbers finally started ticking upward after decades of decline, thanks to volunteers, beach protection and pup rescues. It is a fight that's being won slowly.
- Length
- 2.1–2.4 m (7–8 ft)
- Weight
- 170–270 kg
- Lifespan
- 25–30 years
- Diet
- Fish, octopus, eels, crustaceans
- Dive depth
- Often 60–100 m, sometimes 300 m+
- Found
- Only in Hawaiʻi
The good stuff.
Their Hawaiian name says it all
ʻĪlio-holo-i-ka-uaua — the dog that runs in rough water. Once you've seen a monk seal's face, the dog part makes complete sense.
One of the last of their kind
There were three monk seal species. The Caribbean monk seal was declared extinct in 2008. Only the Hawaiian and the Mediterranean monk seals remain, and both are in trouble.
They hunt with their face in the sand
Monk seals flip over rocks and push their heads into the sand to find octopus and eels hiding underneath — and they'll dive to the deep coral beds most seals never visit.
They're solitary
Unlike sea lions piled on top of each other, monk seals mostly haul out alone. That's part of where the name monk comes from.
Every single pup counts
With a population this small, individual animals matter enormously. Nearly every seal has a name and an ID number, and volunteers set up barriers on beaches when one hauls out to rest or give birth.
Marine debris is a specific danger
The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands collect drifting nets and rope from across the whole Pacific. Cleanup crews pull tonnes of it off those reefs, specifically to keep monk seals from getting tangled.
Wait, really?
- ✦
They've been around, largely unchanged, for roughly 15 million years — sometimes called living fossils.
- ✦
Monk seals moult their entire coat and the top layer of skin once a year, all at once.
- ✦
Pups are born black and lose that coat within their first few weeks.
What it sounds like
Soft grunts, bubbling growls and a distinctive low bark when annoyed.
Where you might see one
The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands hold most of the population, but they're increasingly seen on Kauaʻi and Oʻahu beaches.
The trouble
- Entanglement in marine debris
- Food shortages for young seals
- Shark predation on pups
- Human disturbance on beaches
- Disease, including toxoplasmosis carried in run-off
One real thing
In Hawaiʻi, stay at least 50 feet from a resting monk seal — 150 feet from a mother and pup — and report every sighting to the NOAA hotline. That data is how they're managed.
More ways to help