MARINE MAMMAL COMMISSION — Annual Report for 1992 
island during the principal work period to monitor 
compliance with seal protection measures. The 
Recovery Team also recommended these steps. 
On 28 February the Coast Guard announced it 
planned to close the station six months earlier than 
anticipated — at the end of June 1992 instead of 
December. In response, the Commission wrote to the 
Coast Guard and the National Marine Fisheries 
Service on 12 March 1992 noting the need to acceler- 
ate consultations regarding the station’s closure and 
repeating its previous recommendations. 
On 18 May 1992 the Service advised the Commis- 
sion that consultations were underway with both the 
Coast Guard and State officials. It noted that plans 
for demolishing and leaving the station would address 
points raised in the Commission’s letter. The Service 
also noted that several other provisions, such as 
briefing workers on monk seal protection needs and 
declaring important seal areas as off limits, would be 
implemented. 
In the spring of 1992 demolition work was under- 
taken and much of the debris was removed. A 
Service official was placed on the island to monitor 
demolition work, and in July the Coast Guard vacated 
the station. Some additional demolition work remains 
to be done in 1993. With the island once again 
uninhabited, human disturbance should be substantial- 
ly eliminated, further improving prospects for the 
recovery of this group of seals. 
Headstart and Pup Rehabilitation Projects 
In 1981 the Service began a headstart project to 
reverse the above-mentioned decline in seal numbers 
at Kure Atoll. The decline appeared to be due to high 
mortality of juvenile animals during their first months 
of life. The Service also sought to bring into balance 
a sex ratio that had become strongly skewed towards 
male animals at this atoll. To address these problems, 
newly weaned female pups born on Kure were placed 
in a fenced enclosure on the beach, maintained there 
for several months, and then released back into the 
wild. The program was extremely successful. No 
pups died in captivity, and of the 33 pups released 
between 1981 and 1991, 24 were sighted in 1992. 
32 
To further increase numbers at this location, in 
1984 the Service began a pup rehabilitation project. 
Under this project, underweight female pups on 
French Frigate Shoals judged to have a low probabili- 
ty of survival in the wild were removed for rehabilita- 
tion at facilities on Oahu and then moved to Kure for 
release back into the wild. This project, too, has been 
highly successful. Eleven of 20 seals released be- 
tween 1984 and 1991 were sighted in 1992 at Kure 
and two others were seen at Midway Atoll. Females 
released from the headstart and pup rehabilitation 
projects now produce the majority of pups born on 
Kure, and both the total population and the number of 
pups born have increased steadily since the mid- 
1980s. The total population at Kure Atoll in 1992 
was estimated to number about 90 animals, including 
more than 10 pups. In addition, the number of males 
and females at Kure is now equal. 
In view of progress at Kure and the scheduled 
departure of the Coast Guard in 1992, the Service 
developed plans to suspend headstart and pup rehabili- 
tation/release work there and to shift its efforts to 
Midway Atoll, about 120 kilometers east of Kure. 
Midway Atoll includes three principal islands — Sand, 
Eastern, and Spit. Sand Island, the atoll’s largest, 
became permanently occupied in 1903 and was an 
important military base during World War II. The 
Navy continues to maintain a naval air facility on 
Sand Island. In 1958, counts of up to 68 seals were 
recorded at the atoll, most of which were on Eastern 
Island. In 1991, seal censuses at Midway Atoll 
yielded a mean beach count of five animals and two 
documented births. Plans for shifting work to Mid- 
way were reviewed and endorsed by the Recovery 
Team at its January 1992 meeting. 
In the spring of 1992 Service personnel at French 
Frigate Shoals discovered that the number of young 
seals judged to be emaciated or underweight had 
increased alarmingly over numbers found in previous 
years. They also noted that mean beach counts had 
declined significantly and that this was apparently due 
to decreasing numbers of sub-adult and juvenile 
animals. Tests for signs of disease proved negative, 
and parasite loads appeared normal. The data did 
suggest, however, that the young animals apparently 
were unable to obtain sufficient food. The Service 
