CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM This elephant seal, found last week along the Kona Coast, was held yesterday at the U.S. Coast Guard's air station at Kalaeloa before being flown to San Francisco. The young seal had about a dozen cookie-cutter-shaped shark bites on its body.

Elephant seal
visits Hawaii shores

The young male is the first of
its kind to be seen in the islands

---

By Leila Fujimori
lfujimori@starbulletin.com

The first known elephant seal to visit the main Hawaiian Islands is getting a free flight this afternoon to California near its natural habitat.

Hawaiian Airlines is flying the year-old male seal to San Francisco, where it will be taken to the Marine Mammal Facility near Sausalito for examination and testing for disease.

The young seal was found in fairly good condition wintering along the warm Kona coast last week, well south of its usual temperate and subpolar habitat and migration areas.

"Whenever we see an unusual sighting, it's always intriguing," said Bud Antonelis, chief of Protected Species Investigations at the National Marine Fisheries Service. "We like to ask the question why."

"My guess is, heavy winter storms and currents ended up pushing the animal farther south than during a typical migration," he said.

During this time of year, a young male elephant seal would typically be found off West Coast waters anywhere from Baja, Calif., to Oregon.

The olive-brown seal was found with about a dozen cookie-cutter-shape shark bites, 2 to 3 inches deep, with no serious threat to its health, fisheries service veterinarian Robert Braun said. This, however, is not unusual for a seal, and the injuries are not extensive, Antonelis said.

The animal's body condition appeared normal, weighing about 250 to 260 pounds and measuring 5 1/2 feet in length.

A Coast Guard plane transported the animal yesterday to the Coast Guard's air station at Kalaeloa, Oahu, from Kona.

After a hose-down, the sluggish seal perked up, opened its large black eyes, craned its neck and had a look around.

The animal spent the night at a Honolulu home under a round-the-clock watch.

The seal was first spotted relaxing at Kawaihae Beach last Friday afternoon until Saturday morning. Eventually, he hauled himself up onto the beach at Kona Village Resort, at 7 a.m. Tuesday. There the seal was coaxed into a cage and brought to Oahu.

Elephant seals are known to migrate as far west as Midway, but they have never been spotted as far south as the main Hawaiian Islands.