A familiar face on Oahu's North Shore is gone. NOAA confirmed the death of Mana, a 2-year-old male Hawaiian monk seal also known by his research tag RT68, after he was found dead at Three Tables on Saturday. Volunteers with a nonprofit NOAA partner found him already dead when they arrived, and a fishing hook was later confirmed in his lip.
According to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, NOAA received a community tip about a seal in distress before Hawaii Marine Animal Response, the nonprofit that partners with the agency, located Mana already dead. The NOAA Office of Law Enforcement was informed of his death, and NOAA said it will perform a necropsy to determine the exact cause. Mana was hooked when he was recovered, though officials note that superficial hookings are typically not life threatening on their own, leaving the precise circumstances of his death still under investigation.
Mana was born in December 2024 to monk seal R303, known as BG, and was regularly sighted along Oahu's North Shore, according to the same report. Students at Sunset Elementary School gave him his name, which means strong and powerful. His death marks the fourth Hawaiian monk seal fatality on Oahu in 2026.
A Pattern of Land and Sea Threats
Mana's death follows a string of losses this year that point to two persistent dangers facing Oahu's seals: disease born from land runoff and entanglement in fishing gear. Two of this year's Oahu deaths, Ka'ale and 'Umi'umi, were attributed to toxoplasmosis, a parasitic disease caused by a pathogen excreted exclusively in cat feces, per the Star-Advertiser's reporting. Toxoplasmosis has killed at least 17 Hawaiian monk seals since 2001, according to KITV, making it one of the species' primary infectious threats. Research led by NOAA found that toxoplasmosis cases on Oahu were up to 25 times more likely to occur three to four weeks after major rainfall and coastal runoff events, since storm water carries the parasite from land into nearshore waters where seals forage.
The other recent Oahu death involved fishing gear rather than disease. Three-month-old pup RV36, born at Kaʻena Point State Park in late April, was found dead on August 5 entangled in an unattended fishing net floating roughly 10 yards off Mokulēʻia Beach Park, according to NOAA. State regulations require lay gillnets to be registered, tagged, capped at 125 feet, inspected every two hours, and fully removed within four hours of deployment, rules meant to prevent exactly this kind of unattended entanglement, as detailed by Honolulu Civil Beat.
A Record Pupping Season Clouded by Loss
The deaths arrive during an otherwise banner year for the species on Oahu. The island recorded 14 documented monk seal pup births in 2026, breaking the previous record of 13 set in 2025. That growth reflects a broader recovery: after six decades of decline, the total Hawaiian monk seal population has grown roughly 2 percent annually since 2013 and surpassed 1,500 individuals in 2021 for the first time in over two decades.
Still, the main Hawaiian islands remain a fragile stronghold for the species. Of the roughly 1,600 Hawaiian monk seals left in the wild, nearly 1,200 live in the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, while only about 400 inhabit the main islands, according to NOAA Fisheries. With such a small population near Oahu's shores, each death carries outsized weight, and Hawaiian monk seals remain among the most endangered seal species in the world.
Legal Protections and How to Help
Hawaiian monk seals are protected under both state and federal law. Intentionally or knowingly harming, harassing, or taking an endangered monk seal is a Class C felony in Hawaii, carrying penalties of up to five years in prison and fines up to $50,000. Federal authorities have shown willingness to enforce those protections aggressively; in May, a tourist from Washington state was arrested and charged under the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act after video showed him throwing a rock at a monk seal on Maui.
Wildlife officials recommend beachgoers stay at least 50 feet from monk seals and expand that distance to at least 150 feet around mom-and-pup pairs. Fishermen are urged to use barbless hooks and to leave an area if a monk seal appears nearby. NOAA is asking the public to report any injured, entangled, or dead seals to its marine wildlife hotline at (888) 256-9840, a critical link in monitoring the health of Oahu's small but slowly recovering seal population.
