Every year, our biologists are stationed at remote locations in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands to assess the status of Hawaiian monk seal and green sea turtle populations.
The lack of reproductive pathogens identified in the sampled population indicates that factors other than reproductive pathology, such as resource limitation or other external stressors, may drive the observed variability in monk seal reproductive rates.
Trophic models compare ecosystem structure and energy flow that supports two subpopulations (on Laysan Island and French Frigate Shoals atoll), each with varied rates of decline (1998–2015).