Police hunt for two men caught attacking endangered seal with rock
Police in Hawaii are searching for two men who are suspected of attacking a seal pup with a rock.
The animal, an endangered Hawaiian monk seal, had been on Diamond Head Beach on Sunday (2 August) when visitors claimed they saw two men approach the pup and throw a rock at it.
Hawaii News Now reports that a couple of beachgoers confronted the men for appearing to attack the seal pup, and fortunately the animal wasn't hurt in the alleged attack but police do want to find the men who appeared to throw the rock.
One of the locals who confronted the men was Kauai resident Aly Ishikuni, who said: “It just makes you wonder like, how often does this happen every day.
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"If it’s not the locals standing up and protecting these animals, what else is being done?"
Another beachgoer, Ashley Schilling, said: "They walked straight up to the seal, and then one of them picked up a rock and threw it. That’s when we stepped in because we couldn’t just stand there and watch it happen."
Police are trying to identify the two men and Hawaii's Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) has appealed for help from the public in providing any information which could help accomplish this.
Hawaiian monk seals are an endangered species which are considered to be 'vulnerable', with populations down to a third of what they used to be.
Work has been done to improve the situation and the number of Hawaiian monk seals have been increasing in recent years, with the number of them going beyond 1,500 in 2021.
Among the factors that threatens the species is the behaviour of humans who attack them, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) warning they often become entangled in fishing nets at sea and have been targeted on land.
Records indicate that at least six of the endangered species have been shot dead, and double that number were killed with blunt force trauma.
Even seals that are famous in Hawaii are not safe from being attacked, as a particularly popular one named 'Lani' who had become a symbol of unity following dangerous wildfires in 2023 was involved in an encounter earlier this year.
A 38-year-old man named Igor Lytvynchuk is accused of throwing a rock at Lani on 5 May at Lahaina beach, with him being beaten up by a local afterwards.
Lytvynchuk allegedly threw a rock at the beloved seal while it was in the water, though fortunately missed, and he is claimed to have told locals who confronted him that he was 'rich enough to pay the fines'.
The man's legal representative says he knows he 'made a bad decision' but 'never intended to injure the monk seal'.
Instead, he claimed that he had thrown the rock in an attempt to protect some sea turtles that were on a nearby rock by scaring the seal away from them, and was not aiming at Lani.
LADbible Group have contacted the Department of Land and Natural Resources for comment.
Joe Harker