46 
i 
Hawaiian Monl^ Seal ( Monachus schauinslandi ) 
Current Status ; Resident. 
Rrior Records ; Captain John Paty reported that the ’’islets . . . seemed to 
abound with . . . seals” when he visited Pearl and Hermes in May 1@57 (Paty^ op. 
cit ). Two years later Captain H. C. Brooks of the Hawaiian bark Gambia visited 
the atoll^, but did not mention seals in his report (Brooks^ op. cit .). A dis¬ 
crepancy occurs between several of his reports, as published in Honolulu in 
August 1859 in the Friend , the Polynesian , and the Pacific Commercial Advertiser , 
and also in the Hautical Magazine published in London in i860. The Polynesian 
(August, 1859 ) reports that Brooks returned to Honolulu having ”on board 240 
bbls. seal oil, 1,500 skins”, and the Friend (August, 1859) reports the arrival 
of the bark Gambia , ”out 4 mos., 250 bbl. seal oil”, but in the other two 
publications there is no mention of seals in Brooks’ description of the islands, 
though he mentions birds and turtles. 
On the 24 December I 912 Walter F. Frear, Governor of the Territory of Hawaii, 
went ashore at one of the sandspits and counted 35 seals, including one newborn 
pup (Bailey, 1952). Specimens were collected. In March 1915 Willett (Bailey, 
1956 ) found 50 seals, about 15 females with pups, a few males and several half 
grown animals, on the northern island. Elschner (op. cit .) found many ”sea lions” 
on the ’’northeast island” in September 1914. In April 19^3 Wetmore (op. cit .) 
reported: ’’About 125 seals have been seen on the three islands explored here 
and undoubtedly more inhabit the islands in the northern part of the reef.” 
He visited Southeast, Grass, and Seal islands. Galtsoff (op. cit .) counted about 
68 animals in the lagoon during his stay in 1930- Brock (Bailey, 1952) estimated 
180 seals to be present at Pearl and Hemes in the summer of 1951 • Kenyon and Rice 
( 1959 )^ who made aerial surveys of the atoll in late 1956 and early 1957 ^ 
