"As the Hawaiian monk seal population has recently increased in the main Hawaiian Islands, it has resulted in increased marine resource use overlap between monk seals and commercial, recreational, and subsistence fisheries. This has understandably led to questions and concerns about the potential impact of Hawaiian monk seals on the near shore ecosystem and in particular, on populations of marine species that are consumed by humans. In this analysis, we estimated food consumption by the current Hawaiian monk seal population in the main Hawaiian Islands. To put this consumption into context, we also estimated biomass of near-shore fishes, including apex predators, herbivores, secondary consumers, and planktivores, and the biomass consumption by apex fish predators and humans (i.e., fishery landings). Finally, we compared the families of fish found in the monk seal diet and those targeted by fisheries"--Executive summary.

National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)

Hawaii