Hawaiian Monk Seal at “Tentalows” Beach

After arriving Friday afternoon, Noel wanted to check in before sunset, so we grabbed our rental car and headed straight to the hotel property. We found the Lodge easily, checked in, and then went down an unpaved dirt road for about 15 minutes to where the tents are. The shocks in the rental were horrible….over the weekend I reminded Noel to slow down many times; it was too bumpy for me!
We finally pulled up near the second check-in area and I hopped out to check the beach. Signs, signs, everywhere the signs warning you about Hawaiian Monk Seals! I got giddy, if there were so many signs, does this mean we were going to see one on the beach? I looked up, and I’m not kidding you, there was one on the other side of the beach. At least I guessed so. It looked like a rock from far away, but it was indeed a Monk Seal.
Hawaiian Monk Seals are highly endangered. Current estimates have the population hovering around 1200. They are also very aggressive creatures and are known to attack when disturbed. So all those warning signs made it clear – do not approach the Monk Seals! It’s not only illegal, you can get hurt. Still, Noel got adventurous while I stayed back. Here he is…yes, approaching the Monk Seal!

After a few minutes of watching this, I walked over (making a wide circle around the seal) to get a better look. We hung out with our cameras for an hour or so, watched the seal readjust his sleeping position a few times, and heard a few good snorts. They made me jump because I was so scared the thing would pop up and run after me and I wouldn’t be able to outrun it, but it was nothing. Coincidently, after we got back home I saw a news story about people behaving badly around Monk Seals. They reported that it is illegal to get closer than 100 feet at any time. But they also said that your behavior in this zone is equally important – you need to be quiet and leave them undisturbed if you find yourself too close. While we broke the law, we did use hand signals to communicate and were very conscious of disturbing them.
We really lucked out on this. I kept checking whenever I could, but we wouldn’t see any more seals on the beach the rest of the weekend.