Records concentrate around Kauaʻi, from Kīlauea Point’s sea cliffs down along the Nāpali Coast, and extend to Maui’s coastal lowlands as well. Hawaiian monk seals haul out on sandy beaches and rocky shorelines across the state, resting in the sun rather than on ice like most seals people picture.
This is one of only two mammals found nowhere else on Earth, native to Hawaii alone. Seals forage over coral reefs and the deeper slopes just past them, taking reef fish, eels, octopus, and crustaceans picked off the bottom, a reef-based diet unlike any cold-water seal’s. A mother nurses a single pup on the beach for about six weeks, rarely leaving its side and eating little the whole time.
Records here run high year-round without a strong seasonal peak, which fits a species that doesn’t migrate and stays close to Hawaiian shorelines and reefs in every month.
Full species profile
