i
Report on Hawaiian monk seal survey on Ni'ihau Island, 2014
-
2014
-
Series: PIFSC data report DR-14-017
[PDF-354.22 KB]
Details:
-
Personal Author:
-
Corporate Authors:
-
NOAA Program & Office:
-
Description:"On September 16, 2014, staff from NOAA Fisheries' Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program (HMSRP) completed their second ever land-based survey of monk seals on the island of Ni'ihau. The survey took place at the end of R/V Oscar Elton Sette project SE 14-06. Permanent HMSRP staff, temporary field staff and two personnel representing the US Navy participated in the survey. Two survey methods were utilized to cover the Ni'ihau and Lehua Rock coastlines. The first was a land-based survey via truck, horseback, and on foot that was conducted in areas accessible on land by three separate survey teams concurrently. Each land survey team included HMSRP personnel and Ni'ihau residents who served as guides (red, orange and green tracks; Figure 1). One land team also included US Navy representatives. The second survey method was by boat using Sette small boat SE-2 for Lehua Rock. The boat survey team was staffed only with HMSRP personnel and a Sette coxswain...One portion of the coastline...was not surveyed. This area is not accessible by foot and consists of sheer cliffs with little haulout area for seals. This area was surveyed by boat in September 2013, when 8 seals were observed hauled out along the coastline. This portion of the island proved to be very difficult for obtaining useful identifying information on any seals seen, due to rough sea conditions along the shore. Additionally, it was prohibitively time consuming for the ship to travel to that area of the coast in order to launch the small boat to do the survey. Therefore, it was determined that this area of the coast would not be covered for the 2014 survey. It will be considered for future survey efforts. All teams conducted a census-type survey in which all individual seals encountered in the survey area were recorded. Size, sex, and any identifying information were collected. Land survey teams took photographs of seals whenever possible, while minimizing seal disturbance, to document any identifying marks including tags, scars, and applied or natural bleaches"--Introduction. [doi:10.7289/V5FX77FT (http://dx.doi.org/10.7289/V5FX77FT)]
-
Content Notes:Jessica Lopez, Tracy Wurth and Charles Littnan.
"Issued 14 November 2014."
doi:10.7289/V5FX77FT (http://dx.doi.org/10.7289/V5FX77FT)
System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader.
-
Keywords:
-
Series:
-
DOI:
-
Document Type:
-
Place as Subject:
-
Rights Information:Public Domain
-
Compliance:Library
-
Main Document Checksum:
-
Download URL:
-
File Type:
