MATTHEW WELHOUSE / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-BULLETIN
A Hawaiian monk seal pauses while playing in the rocks
at Makapuu Beach Park. The seal delighted children
and other beachgoers with his antics for several
hours before swimming back out to sea.

Monk seal wows
crowd at Makapuu

It spent a few hours
sunbathing, apparently
unperturbed by its audience

By Nelson Daranciang
Star-Bulletin

An endangered Hawaiian monk seal entertained children playing in tidal pools at Makapuu Beach Park for a few hours yesterday before heading back into the ocean. It was at least 6 feet long and did not have any tags on it.

Jackie Kalama said the seal was already on some rocks at the edge of a tidal pool when she arrived at the beach with her sister and their kids at 9 a.m.

"It was just lounging, flipping on its back to its stomach then to its back again. It wasn't bothered by the kids screaming and playing," she said.

The children kept their distance, she said.

"It was sunbathing," said Bert Souza, who was at the beach with his daughters.

Officials from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources and the National Marine Fisheries Service cordoned off an area 50 yards around the seal to prevent people and other animals from bothering it. By then, about 40 children and their parents were at the tidal pools.

Then, just before noon, the seal went back in the water and headed out to sea.

"I think it got bothered by the scents of all the people around, it kept popping its head up," said John Buchanan, National Marine Fisheries Service.