Adult monk seal badly entangled in marine debris monkseal2.jpg caption: An endangered genus, Monk seals can only survive where they don't have to compete with man for food and space. Greenpeace Foundation
Greenpeace Foundation president Sue White with friend Maka, an abandoned pup she accompanied from the remote northwestern Hawaiian islands in a small plane, here being rehabilitated. Greenpeace Foundation
The U.S. Endangered Species Act calls for the designation of critical habitat for species declared to be endangered. Yet the Hawaiian Monk Seal, and endangered genus with a population counted at only a few hundred individuals, was in 1985 apparently still on a downward slide to oblivion with no special habitat protection.
Greenpeace Foundation staff member (and current President) Sue White filed suit on behalf of Greenpeace Foundation against the federal government. Working with Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund attorneys, she demanding a recovery plan and a critical habitat designation for this uniquely American seal. (Sue was also personally involved in efforts with NMFS to save abandoned pups for re-release, and got to know many of the seals well – working alongside with the government scientists she was suing!)
This suit resulted in the designation of Critical Habitat, and a recovery plan was implemented in its wake. Since that time, the population of monk seals has risen slowly, although threatened by longline vessels and marine debris.
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