Contact: Bud Antonelis                  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
         Gordon Helm                    February  13, 1997

Divers saved one endangered monk seal entangled in netting, but were too late to save another off the coast of Hawaii, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced today. The rescue occurred during a recent reef cleanup at remote French Frigate Shoals, 906 km northwest of Oahu, Hawaii.

A team from NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service and the Hawaii Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research spent four days in January aboard the NOAA ship Townsend Cromwell conducting a preliminary study to classify and remove lost fishing nets that had become fouled on fringing coral reefs.

"We found the seals in a huge pile of net that was fouled four meters deep on the reef bottom and extended to the surface," said NOAA Corps LCDR Mark Pickett, a ship's diver. "The live animal was entangled near the top of the pile and could reach the surface, but a second seal had become entangled near the bottom and drowned." The divers subdued the struggling seal and cut loose the entangling debris.

"Fortunately the seal was a juvenile, so we could free him safely without too much risk to the divers," said Pickett. The dead animal was also a juvenile.

The entangling debris was a composite of several types of old fishing nets, including trawls and driftnets, and lines and miscellaneous items. The debris had likely been adrift for some years and had accumulated at sea before washing onto the reef.

While the rescue was dramatic, it was not uncommon, according to John Henderson, fishery biologist with the service's Honolulu Laboratory. "Every year our biologists travel to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands to monitor monk seal populations, and every year they find and rescue entangled animals," Henderson said.

The number of entanglements is increasing at a rate that disturbs marine biologists. In 1996, biologists documented 22 entanglements involving 19 seals, the most since 1982 when accurate records were first kept. This represents about 1.3% of the entire monk seal population, which has declined dramatically since the late 1950s and presently numbers approximately 1,450 seals.

"We were able to rescue 17 of the seals last year, and we hope the other two escaped by themselves," Henderson said.

The reef cleanup at French Frigate Shoals was a preliminary effort to expand the service's annual removal of beach debris to surrounding reefs. Each year, land-based biologists clean the beaches where monk seals haul out, but are generally unable to remove nets and lines that tangle on reefs rimming the islands or awash within the atoll lagoons. "In the last 15 years, we've removed more than 16,500 potentially entangling nets and lines, and every year when we return to the sites, more have washed ashore," Henderson said.

"In the past, we've had no idea how many seals may be getting entangled on the surrounding reefs; that's why documenting this incident is so significant. It shows the need to increase cleanup efforts to cover offshore areas," according to Bud Antonelis, chief of the Protected Species Investigation at the service's Honolulu Laboratory.

The data have yet to be compiled from the most recent cleanup, but a similar effort at French Frigate Shoals in November 1996 yielded 582 kg of netting over a period of five days. "These two cleanups covered only a small part of one site within the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, so we've only scratched the surface of what needs to be done," Antonelis said.

The nets also damage coral reefs. "Heavy masses of netting wash across shallow reefs and rip out living coral before settling in areas of less wave surge," said Ray Boland, JIMAR diver conducting the surveys.

Fisheries' service researchers hope these findings will renew concern and support for reducing the impact of marine debris on marine wildlife and coral reef ecosystems. "1997 has been designated the International Year of the Reef; now is a good time to expand our efforts to clean up and reduce marine debris in the ocean environment," concluded Antonelis.

The National Marine Fisheries Service, a component of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration within the U.S. Department of Commerce, studies, manages, and protects U.S. living marine resources, coastal habitats, and endangered species. The Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research is a cooperative program between NOAA and the University of Hawaii. Its staff focuses on oceanic, atmospheric, and geophysical research of mutual interest to NOAA and the university.

Photos of the rescue are available by contacting Susan Smith at Bud Antonelis.