otters and people in Alaska. As a preliminary step, 
the Service indicated that it had asked the State of 
Alaska to provide all available data on subsistence and 
commercial use of shellfish resources. Once these 
data are in hand, they will be analyzed to identify 
areas of present and potential conflicts. 
With respect to harvest monitoring and biological 
sampling, the Service indicated that it did not have a 
comprehensive sampling program for sea otters taken 
by Alaska Natives. It noted, however, that teeth were 
being collected and aged to determine population age 
structure. In addition, the Service indicated that it 
was embarking on a pilot program to place freezers 
for storing biological samples in Native villages from 
which residents hunt sea otters. 
The Service also noted that it had completed a 
survey of sea otters in the Aleutian Islands in April 
1992 and thus was in a position to develop a statewide 
population estimate. The Service further noted that 
the Alaska Fish and Wildlife Research Center was 
developing a census technique for sea otters that will 
permit estimates of regional populations within an 
acceptable level of statistical confidence. The survey 
technique was to be field-tested in the summer 1992 
and was hoped to be ready for implementation in 
1993. Finally, the Service noted that it was taking 
under advisement the Commission’s recommendation 
that it convene a workshop to determine the maximum 
net productivity level of sea otters in Alaska. 
On 12 October 1992 the Fish and Wildlife Service 
provided to the Commission and others a revised draft 
sea otter conservation plan, which drew heavily on the 
Commission’s draft. It was the Commission’s under- 
standing that the document would be finalized and 
circulated for public review early in 1993. 
Hawaiian Monk Seal 
(Monachus schauinslandi) 
The Hawaiian monk seal is the most endangered 
seal in the United States and one of the two or three 
most endangered seals in the world. It occurs only in 
the Hawaiian Islands where its distribution is limited 
almost entirely to the small, mostly uninhabited chain 
25 
Chapter III — Species of Special Concern 
of islands and atolls stretching 1,100 miles northwest 
of the main Hawaiian Islands (see Figure 1). 
Hawaiian monk seals are centered around five 
major breeding islands and atolls in the Northwestern 
Hawaiian Islands. These are French Frigate Shoals, 
Laysan Island, Lisianski Island, Pearl and Hermes 
Reef, and Kure Atoll. Although some animals move 
between atolls, most animals continue to use beaches 
at the atolls of their birth for resting, molting, and 
pupping. 
Of the five principal breeding locations, French 
Frigate Shoals, a group of small sand islets halfway 
along the chain, is by far the most important. About 
40 to 50 percent of the total population and total 
number of births occur at this location, an amount 
about equal to the total number of births at the other 
four primary breeding sites combined. A few births 
also occur regularly at Niihau, Nihoa, Necker, and 
Midway Islands, and in 1991 two births occurred in 
the main Hawaiian Islands. 
Little historical information is available on the 
Hawaiian monk seal population. There are no archeo- 
logical or Polynesian records of seals from the main 
Hawaiian Islands although their presence there at the 
time of first human occupation seems reasonable. The 
first recorded observations of seals in the Northwest- 
ern Hawaiian Islands date from the early 1800s. 
Historical records suggest that, by the mid- to late 
1800s, their numbers had been significantly depleted 
due to scavenging by shipwrecked sailors and bird 
hunters seeking exotic plumage, as well as by com- 
mercial sealing. 
Background on Recovery Activities 
In 1909 President Theodore Roosevelt designated 
the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands as the Hawaiian 
Islands Reservation to protect seabirds. Hawaiian 
monk seals also benefited from protection afforded by 
this action, and their numbers apparently increased 
significantly during the first half of this century. 
Later renamed the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife 
Refuge, the area is now managed by the U.S. Fish 
and Wildlife Service. 
