Wildlife Fact Sheet

You may have heard of Hawaiian monk seals because they’re one of the most endangered marine mammals in the world. Hawaiian monk seals are mainly threatened by entanglement in fishing gear, food availability, disease and predation, and although many protections are in place their numbers have continued to fall. Hawaiian monk seals certainly struggle with marine debris: the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands act like a net in the North Pacific, ensnaring large amounts of drifting fishing gear and debris on its fringing reefs and sandy shores. The daily accumulation of large amounts of debris—almost entirely plastics—on Midway’s shores bothers Hawaiian monk seals as they haul out on its beaches and forage in the atoll’s shallow waters. With only about 1,400 Hawaiian monk seals remaining, it’s more important than ever to keep their habitat healthy and trash free! Other monk seal relatives are even bigger trouble—there are only 300-600 Mediterranean monk seals left, and the Caribbean monk seal went extinct in the 1970s. Fortunately, recent studies are showing a small but steady increase to their population in the Hawaiian Islands.