Officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Hawai‘i Department of Land and Natural Resources are working together to try and understand what led to the death of an endangered Hawaiian monk seal, tagged as RB18.
News Releases
The Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) will be holding its third public information meeting on sea level rise vulnerability and adaptation on Thursday, March 23, 2017. The meeting will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Planning Conference rooms located in the Kalana Pāku‘i building at 250 S. High Street, room 200, in Wailuku, Maui.
A community volunteer project to clean and beautify a significant Hawaiian cultural site in central Maui was accomplished last weekend, thanks to efforts of an Eagle Scout, members of a local church and others.
Governor David Ige proclaimed the 5th annual Hawaii Invasive Species Awareness Week (HISAW) at a ceremony Friday that included agency leaders, legislators, industry champions, and citizens who help project Hawaii from the impacts of invasive species. The Governor presented the proclamation to members of the Hawaii Invasive Species Council (HISC), the interagency board responsible for policy direction and cross-sector coordination on invasive species issues. Addressing invasive species is a critical component of this administration's vision for Hawaii's future, as described in the recent Hawaii Interagency Biosecurity Plan and the Sustainable Hawaii Initiative.
Local and national non-profit and non-governmental organizations are offering $50,000 for information about the killings of five Hawaiian seals, with the February suspicious death of seal R4DP near ‘Ele‘ele on Kaua‘i making the matter even more urgent. Since 2011, these groups have offered $10,000 rewards for information leading to the arrest and conviction of people involved in the killing of Hawaiian monk seals.
The Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Forestry and Wildlife would like to thank all wildlife artists that submitted amazing art entries for the 2017-18 Hawaii Wildlife Conservation and Game Bird Stamp Art Contest. A committee reviewed all submissions and two winners were chosen last month.
An oft-spotted, fifteen-year-old endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal, known as R4DP was found dead on a beach near ʻEleʻele on February 23, 2017. Officers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Office of Law Enforcement (OLE) and from the DLNR Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement (DOCARE) are investigating the female seal’s death as suspicious, as it had injuries “inconsistent with any natural cause of death associated with wild monk seals.”
Nearly every time Larry Pacheco of the DLNR Division of State Parks arrives at one of the locked gates leading into ‘Iao Valley, he ends up informing people who are walking up the road…ignoring multiple signs that indicate both ‘Iao Valley State Monument and Maui County’s Kepaniwai Park are closed.
Botanists surveying a remote area on Maui found something they didn’t expect – a species of fern previously unknown to science. Named after the mountain on which it is found, Athyrium haleakalae was recently announced and described in a paper by Kenneth Wood and Warren Wagner of the National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG) and the Smithsonian Institution, respectively
Reintroduction efforts for the ʻAlalā, the native Hawaiian crow, began in December of last year with the release of five ʻAlalā into a Hawai‘i Island State Natural Area Reserve. Sadly, three birds did not survive, and the remaining two were brought back into captivity.