While I lived on the Big Island of Hawaii, I worked as a dolphin trainer and spent my “Saturdays” volunteering at Ke Kai Ola; the Hawaiian monk seal hospital that is operated by The Marine Mammal Center.
My Saturdays, meaning the week day Tuesday, since animal professionals weekends usually don’t fall on normal weekends. By volunteering on my first day off, I had 24 hours to “quarantine”, away from any marine mammals for my Sunday before returning to work.
Most of the monk seals that come through Ke Kai Ola (Hawaiian for “the healing sea”), were juveniles that were picked up from the North Western Hawaiian Islands. Throughout the year, NOAA sends crews of people up to the most remote parts of the Hawaiian island chain for monitoring projects and debris cleanup, and in the process, they identify, attempt to capture and transport monk seals that need help. Of particular interest are the pre-weaned and yearling animals that are underweight, not thriving and presumably wouldn’t survive until the next trip.
An estimated 1,400 Hawaiian monk seals currently survive, and the vast majority of them (all but 300) live in the North Western Hawaiian Islands. They face threats including entanglement, limited food supply, habitat loss and on one particular atoll, more frequent shark predation.
During my time volunteering at Ke Kai Ola, I worked along an incredibly skilled team from The Marine Mammal Center, and an amazing crew of dedicated volunteers. Since Ke Kai Ola opened it’s doors in 2014, it successfully rescued, rehabilitated and returned over 1% of the Hawaiian monk seal population back to their native shores. I learned skills including animal restraint and tube feeding, helped offload precious cargo from Coast Guard planes, and educated tourists and locals as a mother nursed her days old pup on the beach.
It was an incredible experience – I encourage you to go out and seek volunteer opportunities in your community.