Hawaii conservationists are concerned that cat feces from feral colonies are washing into the ocean and imperiling monk seals, one of the world's most endangered marine mammals. 
 
 Cats are shown eating at a feral cat colony near Honolulu on Thursday, Sept. 15, 2016. Conservationists are concerned about the number of feral cats roaming Hawaii because cat feces washing into the ocean can be deadly for endangered Hawaiian monk seals. 
 
 Hawaii's stray cat population lies at the center of a heated debate between two camps of animal lovers in the Aloha State. On one side are conservationists who are calling to euthanize some of the hundreds of thousands of feral cats whose feces are thought to be spreading a disease that is killing Hawaiian monk seals. These marine mammals are among the most endangered in the world. 
 
 On the other side of the debate are cat lovers who take issue with killing one animal for the sake of another. 
 
 "It's a very difficult, emotional issue," said state Sen. Mike Gabbard, chairman of a committee that earlier this year proposed a ban on feeding stray cats on state land. The proposal was abandoned after strong objections. "It struck a nerve in our community," Senator Gabbard said. 
 
 Hawaii is facing an explosion of stray cats, as they have no predators in the state. By the 2015 estimates of the Hawaiian Humane Society, there are about 300,000 feral cats on the island of Oahu alone. The problem is that the cats carry a common bacterial parasite that, they say, threatens the seals. The same bacteria is thought to have killed California sea otters, and is largely responsible for the extinction of the Hawaiian crow, the ʻalalā, in the wild. 
 
 The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates that these toxic cat feces have killed eight Hawaiian monk seals since 2001, five females and three males, who have ingested contaminated water or prey. 
 
 "While eight seals may not sound like a lot of animals, it actually has pretty large ramifications for an endangered population where there's only about 1,300 seals in existence," said Michelle Barbieri, a veterinary medical officer for NOAA's Hawaiian monk seal research program. 
 
 Since cats are not native to Hawaii – they were brought in – the NOAA program is pushing for a way to shrink their population, either through adoption or through what a NOAA coordinator describes as "humane euthanization." 
 
 "As conservationists, what we really have to look at is this is what Hawaii's native ecosystem includes, and cats are unfortunately not part of that," said Angela Amlin, NOAA's acting Hawaiian monk seal recovery coordinator. 
 
 That doesn’t mean Hawaii should kill cats, say animal welfare advocates. In a response to the state Senate bill, Hawaiian Humane Society President and chief executive Pamela Burns wrote that she opposes a "hierarchy in which the protection of certain animals comes at the suffering of others." 
 
 She and other animal welfare advocates decry euthanasia for healthy felines. "What we ... don't advocate is the wholesale killing, the extermination, of one species" for another, said Alicia Maluafiti, the board president of animal welfare group Poi Dogs and Popoki. 
 
 Trapping, neutering, and spaying to help control the cat population are reasonable solutions to the problem, say cat supporters. 
 
 This report uses material from the Associated Press. ||||| Hoku endured some rough days before he died last spring. Three dogs chased him off one of his resting beaches, and he battled a minor tsunami that left him wedged between a pair of boulders in a lava field far from shore. 
 
 Observers noticed him looking thin in the few months before fishermen found him dead on a beach near the east Kaua`i town of Kapa`a. 
 
 In the end, disease took him. 
 
 Nicknamed “Star” in Hawaiian for the small white spot on his forehead, Hoku was a large, 10-year-old Hawaiian monk seal, an endangered species. 
 
 Hoku may likely have been the second Hawaiian monk seal to die this year from Toxoplasmosa gondii, a parasite transmitted primarily through cat feces and carried to the ocean in polluted runoff and sewage. 
 
 The first suspected toxoplasmosis case of the year came in January. While conducting his weekly seal search along the coastline of Moloka`i’s Kalaupapa National Historical Park, marine ecologist Eric Brown discovered a stillborn pup in a tide pool. His mother, apparently in good health, lay nearby. 
 
 David Schofield, marine mammal response coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Islands Regional Office, believes the pup may have been the first Hawaiian monk seal to die from a toxoplasmosis infection transmitted in the womb. 
 
 With only about 1,100 monk seals left in the wild, the deaths are “very concerning and put toxo as one of our primary concerns” for the species, says Charles Littnan, lead scientist for NOAA’s monk seal research program. 
 
 The overall population of monk seals is declining at a rate of about 4.5 percent a year. The good news is that in recent years, their numbers have been growing in the main Hawaiian islands. Now resource managers worry that in the midst of so many humans, interactions will likely increase, as will the seals’ chances of encountering diseases and contaminants. 
 
 No studies have been done in Hawai`i on how and where toxoplasmosis reaches the ocean and there are few efforts to control it. In California, however, researchers have found that it infects sea otters mainly though runoff from urban areas. 
 
 Flushing cat litter down the toilet is one pathway, since sewage treatment does not always kill the parasite’s hardy eggs, called oocysts. Studies have found that oocysts can live for at least two years in sea water. 
 
 Over the past ten years, the cat parasite has killed at least four monk seals in the main Hawaiian islands - two from Kaua`i, one from O`ahu, and one from Moloka`i - and perhaps six, experts estimate. 
 
 Those deaths “should be considered an absolute minimum since there are dead seals we never know about and ones we sample but are unable to determine a cause of death for,” Littnan said. 
 
 “We are only just beginning to understand the prevalence of the disease in the population and determine ways to mitigate the impact.” 
 
 Hunted to near extinction in the late 19th century, the Hawaiian monk seal was federally listed as endangered in 1976, after populations plummeted during the 1960s and 1970s, largely due to military disturbance. 
 
 Today, it is considered the most endangered pinniped in the United States. With a potential peak population of about 3,000 seals, NOAA predicts numbers will drop below 1,000 in the next few years. 
 
 The population’s core has long been in the remote, largely uninhabited Northwest Hawaiian Islands, but more and more, conditions there are killing them. Low juvenile survival due to starvation is by far the biggest problem facing monk seals. Some researchers speculate that overfishing may have caused a shift in predator dominance that is now making it nearly impossible for young seals to compete for food. 
 
 But diseased cats also are among the seals’ worst enemies, since their feces flow into the ocean via runoff and sewage. 
 
 The state Division of Forestry and Wildlife estimates that 300,000 to 400,000 free-ranging cats live on Maui alone. That’s roughly two cats per resident. 
 
 “Cats are all over the place in Hawai`i,” explains Thierry Work, a wildlife disease specialist with the Geological Survey’s Honolulu field station who studied toxoplasmosis in Hawaiian crows, known as `alala, about a decade ago. “Wherever there are cats, there’s the potential for toxoplasmosis.” 
 
 Although domestic cats are considered the main source, feral cats in remote areas also transmit the disease. Nearly 40 percent of 67 cats captured from the slopes of Mauna Kea, on the island of Hawai`i, tested positive for toxoplasmosis, according to a 2007 article in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases. 
 
 In the past decade or so, toxoplasmosis has been regularly found in a wide range of marine mammals, including whales, dolphins and sea lions. In Hawa`i, it also has killed seabirds and endangered Hawaiian crow and geese. 
 
 Perhaps most famously, southern sea otters in California began dying off in alarming numbers in the 1990s. Toxoplasmosis was found in 52 percent of fresh, beach-cast otter carcasses and 38 percent of live otters sampled along the California coast, according to a 2005 International Journal of Parasitology article. 
 
 In Hawa`i, it also has killed seabirds and endangered Hawaiian crow and geese.Whether the increased diagnoses indicate improved testing techniques or a rise in disease prevalence is difficult to determine. 
 
 “Probably both things are at play and it’s going to be awfully hard to tease those out,” says Scott Wright of the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center. 
 
 Sometimes a pathogen is discovered in a species and it’s unclear what it means in terms of the disease moving through a population, he says. “In some cases, circumstances change and the disease takes hold and causes a problem and other times it doesn’t,” he says. 
 
 For some seals, determining a cause of death is impossible since they are often highly decomposed when discovered. 
 
 “If we’re not there within 24 to 48 hours, the insides of the seal are soup,” Littnan says. 
 
 But even when his team confirms the presence of T. gondii, that doesn’t necessarily indicate an infection, let alone a fatal one. So, in addition to hunting for the pathogen, his team looks for signs, such as swelling of the brain, lymph nodes, or lungs, that are typical of toxoplasmosis. 
 
 Hoku, an up-and-coming dominant male, died of “severe meningoencephalitis caused by a protozoan,” Littnan says. Although toxoplasmosis is suspected, it has not yet been confirmed as the culprit. He notes that only Hoku’s brain was inflamed but not other organs that toxoplasmosis has a predilection for. This suggests that the parasite was “inactive for a long period,” he says, “but some event, such as immune suppression, may have led to activation. At this point, the findings are speculative until all the results come back.” 
 
 Hoku visited an area known as Salt Ponds four times in the six months before he died. There are well-known, and well-fed, feral cat populations there and at Kalaupapa National Historic Park. But Littnan says seals “move across a pretty large range. It’s hard to trace it back to where they were likely exposed.” 
 
 Throughout most of Hawai`I, water quality in surface waters ranges from “slightly impaired to severely impaired” by pathogens and pollutants, according to a state assessment. In particular, runoff from densely populated watersheds on Maui and O`ahu likely contains pathogens, according to the state’s polluted runoff control implementation plan. 
 
 Sewage is also a significant source of pathogens as tropical storms overwhelm aging transmission pipes and inadequate treatment systems. What’s more, injection wells on Maui have created giant wastewater plumes at some popular beaches. 
 
 Cat feces also contaminate livestock. A study of pig farms on O`ahu found that nearly half of more than 500 pigs tested positive for toxoplasmosis. Most rivers that flow to the ocean traverse through an agricultural site, according to a 2006 EcoHealth article by Littnan and researchers from NOAA and the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute. 
 
 Although the state doesn’t test for toxoplasmosis, the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Testing the Waters 2010 report provides some insight into the role runoff plays in pathogen transmission in Hawai`i. Storm water was responsible for 99 percent of beach closures/advisories in 2009. Sewage spills accounted for the remaining one percent. Kaua`i beaches exceeded daily maximum bacterial standards most often. 
 
 According to the EcoHealth article, nearly 30 million gallons of sewage were spilled between 2000 and 2004. That number was exceeded in a matter of days in 2005, when a broken main caused the city of Honolulu to divert 48 million gallons of raw sewage into Waikiki’s Ala Wai canal. 
 
 In addition to toxoplasmosis, other pathogens have infected monk seals. 
 
 A few years ago, Littnan, NOAA contract veterinarian Robert Braun, and Brent Stewart and Pamela Yochem of the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute tested seals for pathogens while trying to assess the disease threat.Their results, published in EcoHealth, suggest that seals encounter a variety of pathogens, including Sarcocystis neurona and Neospora caninum, as well as T. gondii. S. neurona causes equine protozoal myeloencephalitis, which creates lesions on the spinal cord and brain stem. Neosporosis can cause abortions in cattle and neuromuscular degeneration in dogs. 
 
 Leptospirosis is among the biggest concerns. Suspected in the death of two pups born near a stream mouth on the island of Hawai`I, it is mainly transmitted through contact with surface water contaminated with infected rodent or mongoose urine. 
 
 Although there is limited data on leptospirosis prevalence in Hawai`i, it’s considered ubiquitous. The reported incidence rate among people in Hawai`i (1.29 cases per 100,000 persons) is about 30 times the national rate, with the highest rates on Kaua`i and Hawai`i islands. 
 
 In another effort to gauge threats, Hawai`i Pacific University graduate student Jessica Lopez is evaluating 77 industrial chemicals and pesticides found in about 60 monk seals over the past decade. 
 
 “We don't know anything about what levels can cause an effect in monk seals, whether lethal or sub-lethal, so it will be difficult to speak to whether the levels measured are ‘safe’ or not,” she says. 
 
 Lopez also plans to evaluate seal movements and locations of sewage outflows and agricultural and industrial complexes to determine high risk areas that may factor into decisions on managing the seals. 
 
 For Littnan, filling data gaps is his top priority, such as tracking the mother of January’s stillborn pup to see if she has signs of infection. 
 
 “It would be very interesting to learn more about seals that [test positive for toxoplasmosis] but are not showing any clinical signs,” he said. 
 
 If the mother tests positive, drugs might be available for treatment. NOAA is partnering with California’s Marine Mammal Center to build a monk seal hospital in Kona. 
 
 To raise public awareness about toxoplasmosis and cat feces, NOAA has begun talking with the Hawai`i Humane Society, various interest groups and the health department. 
 
 But given his experience with Hawaiian birds, Work of the U.S. Geological Survey says generating the political will to control cats is “very difficult.” 
 
 “The `alala is a classic case in point,” Work says. Ten years ago, toxoplasmosis was identified as a threat at a national wildlife refuge in Kona that was created for the birds. Yet today, the cats remain at the refuge, while the `alala have been extirpated from the area. 
 
 Scientists are concerned about the role the disease may play in the seals’ recovery. 
 
 Under NOAA’s recovery plan, the population must grow from the current 1,100 to a minimum of 2,900 before it can be downlisted to threatened. In a recent article, NOAA scientists stated that “fishery interactions, direct killing, and disease could rapidly undo the current fragile positive trend” on the main islands. 
 
 “The greatest need for seals right now is fostering the co-existence of seals and people. That’s the most immediate threat to population growth in the main Hawaiian islands,” Littnan says. Compounding the threat, “toxo and lepto will be there and will probably continue to operate in a background level.” ||||| About the Species 
 
 The Hawaiian monk seal is one of the most endangered seal species in the world. The population overall has been declining for over six decades and current numbers are only about one-third of historic population levels. Importantly, however, the prolonged decline has slowed over the last 10 years, thanks in many ways to recovery efforts. 
 
 Hawaiian monk seals are found in the Hawaiian archipelagoâ€”which includes both the main and Northwestern Hawaiian Islandsâ€”and rarely at Johnston Atoll which lies nearly 1,000 miles southwest of Hawai'i. These monk seals are endemic to these islands, occurring no where else in the world. Hawaiian monk seals are protected under the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and State of Hawai'i law. 
 
 The Hawaiian monk seal is one of NOAA Fisheries' Species in the Spotlight. 
 
 Rocky, the Famous Hawaiian Monk Seal 
 
 Rocky became famous in 2017 when she had a pup on a busy beach in Waikiki. She returned to Kauai on July 14, 2018, and on July 16, 2018, she was observed with a new pup. 
 
 Get monk seal updates and "pupdates" 
 
 Status 
 
 The population is estimated to be around 1,400 seals—about 1,100 seals in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and 300 seals in the main Hawaiian Islands. 
 
 A prolonged decline of the Hawaiian monk seal population in the NWHI occurred after the late 1950s, lasting until very recently. While individual subpopulations increased or decreased during that time, the total number of seals in the NWHI declined. Although this decline means that a full recovery of the species is a long way off, there have been some relatively recent, encouraging developments, including: 
 
 Apparent recolonization and significant growth of the main Hawaiian Islands monk seal subpopulation from low numbers to approximately 300 over the past two or more decades. 
 
 Overall species population growth of 3 percent each year between 2014 and 2016. 
 
 Promising advances in juvenile seal survival enhancement research. 
 
 The decline that occurred in the NWHI has been attributed to a number of factors at various regions and time periods. However, low juvenile survival, likely related to inadequate prey availability, has been the primary driver of the decline during the past 25 years. 
 
 Protected Status 
 
 ESA Endangered Throughout Its Range 
 
 CITES Appendix I Throughout Its Range 
 
 MMPA Protected Throughout Its Range 
 
 MMPA Depleted Throughout Its Range 
 
 Appearance 
 
 Newborn monk seal pups are born black, while weaned pups and older seals are dark gray to brown on their back and light gray to yellowish brown on their belly. 
 
 Monk seals undergo a "catastrophic molt" about once per year, where they shed the top layer of their skin and fur (similar to elephant seals). Seals that spend a long time at sea foraging can grow algae on their fur. Those that look green haven't molted recently and may be getting ready to shed into a new silvery coat. 
 
 Most Hawaiian monk seals have unique natural markings, such as scars or natural bleach marks (white spots), on their fur which help identify them. Personnel authorized by NOAA Fisheries often apply tracking tags to their rear flippers. Tagging and tracking used in combination with identification of unique markings enable long-term monitoring of individuals. 
 
 Male and female monk seals are similar in size. The only way to confirm whether a seal is female or male is by looking at its belly. 
 
 Behavior and Diet 
 
 Hawaiian monk seals are "generalist" feeders, which means they eat a wide variety of foods depending on what's available. They eat many types of common fishes, squids, octopuses, eels, and crustaceans (crabs, shrimps, and lobsters). Diet studies indicate that they forage at or near the seafloor and prefer prey that hide in the sand or under rocks. They do not target most of the locally popular gamefish species such as ulua (giant trevally), pāpio (baby ulua), and ‘ō‘io (bonefish). 
 
 Hawaiian monk seals can hold their breath for up to 20 minutes and dive more than 1,800 feet; however, they usually dive an average of 6 minutes to depths of less than 200 feet to forage at the seafloor. 
 
 Hawaiian monk seals are mostly solitary and don't live in colonies like sea lions or other seals. But they do sometimes lie near each other—usually not close enough to make physical contact—in small groups. They usually sleep on beaches, sometimes for days at a time. They also occasionally sleep in small underwater caves. 
 
 Monk seals do not migrate seasonally, but some seals have traveled hundreds of miles in the open ocean. Individual seals often frequent the same beaches over and over, but they do not defend territories. 
 
 Where They Live 
 
 Hawaiian monk seals are found throughout the entire Hawaiian archipelago, a distance of 1,549 miles from Kure Atoll in the northwest to Hawai'i Island in the southeast. The majority of Hawaiian monk seals (about 1,100 individuals) live in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, and a much smaller population (about 300) lives in the main Hawaiian Islands. There have also been rare sightings of Hawaiian monk seals, as well as a single birth, at Johnston Atoll, the closest atoll southwest of the Hawaiian Islands. 
 
 Monk seals live in warm, subtropical waters and spend two-thirds of their time at sea. They use the waters surrounding atolls and islands and areas farther offshore on reefs and submerged banks; they also use deepwater coral beds as foraging habitat. When on land, monk seals breed and haul-out to rest, give birth, and molt on sand, corals, and volcanic rock shorelines. They prefer sandy, protected beaches surrounded by shallow waters for pupping. 
 
 World map providing approximate representation of the Hawaiian monk seal's range. 
 
 Lifespan & Reproduction 
 
 Monk seals can live to over 30 years of age, but few live that long. 
 
 Monk seals mate in the water. The youngest documented female to give birth was 4 years old, but typically females begin reproducing at age 5 to 6 in the main Hawaiian Islands and age 7 to 10 in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. 
 
 Threats 
 
 Food Limitation 
 
 Limited food intake by juvenile seals was the dominant factor driving the population decline in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands for many years, and it remains a limiting factor for juvenile survival despite recent, positive signs that the population is stabilizing. In the NWHI, seals must compete for food with large populations of other apex predators, such as large jacks (carangids) and sharks. Shifts in ecosystem productivity, caused by global climate change and/or cyclical changes, may also contribute to food limitation. 
 
 Shark Predation 
 
 Predation by Galapagos sharks on pre-weaned or recently weaned seal pups has become a major cause of injury and mortality specific to French Frigate Shoals in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. This is a unique and relatively recent type of seal mortality that appears to result from atypical behavior of a limited number of Galapagos sharks that prey on pups in near shore waters, often in just a few feet of water. Learn more about our monk seal pup protection efforts at French Frigate Shoals. 
 
 Entanglement 
 
 Hawaiian monk seals have one of the highest documented entanglement rates of any pinniped species, and pups and juveniles are the most often entangled. Marine debris and derelict fishing gear are chronic forms of pollution affecting monk seal habitat, particularly in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The number of monk seals found entangled each year has generally remained unchanged. Undertaken by various agencies within NOAA, the U.S. Coast Guard, and other partners, marine debris removal efforts have extracted over 800 metric tons of debris in the NWHI since 1996, but accumulation rates of marine debris appear to remain constant. 
 
 Male Seal Aggression 
 
 A significant cause of female and juvenile monk seal mortality—and overall population decline—during the 1980s and early 1990s was by aggression from multiple male seals (especially at Laysan and Lisianski Islands). In other instances, single males have aggressively attacked and lethally injured recently weaned pups at French Frigate Shoals and Kure Atoll. NOAA Fisheries found that removal of specific aggressive males appears to be an effective method to address this threat. Other interventions include hazing of the aggressor, translocating young seals away from areas with the aggressive males, and treating injured seals as appropriate. Male aggression continues to be a concern, even though it tends to be episodic, geographically limited, and largely manageable provided necessary resources are available. 
 
 Habitat Loss 
 
 The loss of terrestrial habitat is a significant issue in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, which has mostly low-lying atolls (many islands less than 6.5 feet above sea level) subject to beach loss from storm erosion and sea level rise. Some significant habitat loss—such as the disappearance of Whale-Skate Island at French Frigate Shoals which was previously a primary pupping site—has already occurred, and sea level rise over the longer term may threaten a large portion of the resting and pupping habitat in the NWHI. 
 
 Fishery Interactions 
 
 Since 1990, fishery management measures have eliminated interactions with monk seals in U.S.-managed commercial fisheries in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. But interactions in nearshore recreational and subsistence fisheries have occurred in the main Hawaiian Islands. Between 1976 and 2016, there have been 155 documented hookings and entanglements in gill nets, which resulted in 12 monk seal deaths. Expert fishermen, together with state and federal wildlife managers, have developed best practice guidance for fishermen that participate in the three main Hawaiian Islands nearshore fisheries that may interact with monk seals: spearfishing, shorecasting, and gillnet fishing. 
 
 Disease 
 
 The primary diseases of concern to monk seals include distemper viruses (morbillivirus), West Nile virus, leptospirosis, and toxoplasmosis. There is also the threat of emergent diseases that have yet to make it to Hawai'i. The lack of antibodies in monk seals to these diseases makes them extremely vulnerable to potential infection. Since 2001, there have been a minimum of eight monk seal deaths from toxoplasmosis in the Hawaiian Islands, with at least three deaths occurring since 2014. This number is likely a significant underestimate of the true numbers of cases of this disease and its impact on the population. 
 
 Human-Seal Interactions 
 
 Intentional feeding, disturbance of sleeping or resting seals, and/or other direct human interactions, such as swimming with juvenile seals, has become a serious concern for the main Hawaiian Islands population. Beaches that are popular for human recreation are increasingly used by monk seals for "hauling out" (resting) and molting, and some female monk seals are also pupping on popular recreational beaches. During these pupping events, mother-pup pairs remain on the beach to nurse for up to 7 weeks, at which time they're particularly vulnerable to human disturbance. This also presents a serious human safety concern, as mother seals are protective and aggressive. Human-seal interactions pose both a threat to human and seal safety and have necessitated the relocation of "conditioned" seals to remote locations in some cases. 
 
 Intentional Killing 
 
 Intentional killing of seals is an extreme example of negative human impacts in the main Hawaiian Islands. As of June 2017, at least four seals have died from apparent gunshots (including one pregnant female) and five from blunt force trauma. Foul play could not be ruled out as the cause of death for at least one other seal. 
 
 Scientific Classification
– The feral cat population has exploded in Hawaii, where they are not native and face no natural predators—and this could spell disaster for the endangered monk seal. That's because cat poop often contains a parasite called Toxoplasmosa gondii, and when sewage and polluted runoff carry the infected feces to the ocean, it can prove lethal, reports Scientific American. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates that eight Hawaiian monk seals have succumbed to the disease since 2001, which is a sizable number given that 1,100 are estimated to be alive today in the wild. The same bacteria have also killed California sea otters and helped send the Hawaiian crow into extinction, reports the Christian Science Monitor. But while conservationists call for the "humane euthanization" of some feral cats, animal welfare advocates oppose a "hierarchy in which the protection of certain animals comes at the suffering of others," as the president of the Hawaiian Human Society puts it. Monk seals are considered the most endangered pinniped in the country, and their numbers are expected to dip below 1,000 soon, with starvation among the young the largest known problem. Meanwhile, Hawaii's Division of Forestry and Wildlife estimates that 300,000 feral cats live on Oahu and as many as 400,000 on Maui, which is roughly two cats per human resident. NOAA is working with California’s Marine Mammal Center on a monk seal hospital in Kona to try to care for the sick ones before they die. (Humans have hunted Caribbean monk seals to extinction.)