Hawaiian Monk Seals Live Nowhere Else on Earth

Some animals are found across whole oceans. The Hawaiian monk seal has one home. NOAA Fisheries states that Hawaiian monk seals are endemic to the Hawaiian archipelago, occurring nowhere else in the world, from the main Hawaiian Islands to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. There are very few of them. NOAA Fisheries estimates the population at around 1,600 seals, nearly 1,200 of them in Papahānaumokuākea and about 400 in the main islands, and calls the species one of the most endangered seals in the world. Their history explains why. Seal hunting in the mid-19th century reduced them to near extinction. They recovered by the late 1950s, then began a long decline. Since 2013 the population has been increasing again, but it is still only about a third of its historic size.