{"id":646512,"date":"2026-05-16T10:24:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T10:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/646512\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T10:24:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T10:24:27","slug":"people-usually-get-away-with-harming-hawaiis-seals-despite-tourist-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/646512\/","title":{"rendered":"People Usually Get Away With Harming Hawai\u2018i\u2019s Seals Despite Tourist Case"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Seattle visitor was arrested a week after lobbing a rock at an endangered seal on Maui. But cases involving people killing the seals are rarely prosecuted.<\/p>\n

The response was swift.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A week after a bystander\u2019s cellphone video appeared to show a tourist heaving a coconut-sized rock at a Hawaiian monk seal swimming in calm waters off Lahaina, barely missing its head, federal authorities charged the Seattle resident with harassing the endangered animal.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, they arrested the person believed to be in the video: Igor Mykhaylovych Lytvynchuk, 38. He\u2019s expected to appear in court in Honolulu on May 27.<\/p>\n

Those decisive moves followed near-universal outrage as images of the startled male monk seal and a defiant Lytvynchuk went viral in Hawai\u02bbi and beyond, prompting calls for action.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Outside of high-profile incidents such as that, authorities struggle to prosecute those who harass or even intentionally kill Hawai\u02bbi\u2019s monk seals \u2014 one of the world\u2019s most endangered species and a culturally important animal in the islands.<\/p>\n

\"SequenceImages in the criminal complaint against Igor Lytvynchuk show him allegedly throwing a rock at a monk seal just offshore, narrowly missing its head. (Hawai\u02bbi District Court document\/2026)<\/p>\n

Protecting the mammals from human harm, advocates say, remains a complex and uphill battle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most incidents don\u2019t get caught on camera. Federal enforcement is stretched awfully thin across the Pacific region. Misinformation about the seals competing with fishermen for food, seal advocates say, continues to spread through local communities and spur attacks.<\/p>\n

And state lawmakers just replaced $7.5 million worth of green fee funding to expand community-led visitor education programs that could have helped the situation with their own pet projects, most of which barely relate to environmental protection.<\/p>\n

Amid all those challenges, decomposed seal carcasses are still regularly found in the sand, snagged on reefs and floating in nearshore waters in ways that cause wildlife responders to suspect the animals were intentionally killed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of the most critically endangered mammals on the planet and you\u2019re seeing it dissolve in front of you. It\u2019s heartbreaking,\u201d said Todd Yamashita, who regularly encounters those scenes as Moloka\u02bbi\u2019s lead coordinator for the nonprofit Hawai\u02bbi Marine Animal Response.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201dEvery dead seal has a story to tell,\u201d he said, \u201cif you get to it in time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA monk seal carcass decomposes on a Moloka\u02bbi beach in January 2021. The decomposition was too far along to determine the cause of death, but responders often suspect foul play when they find a carcass on the beach above the shoreline that did not wash ashore there. (Courtesy: Todd Yamashita)<\/p>\n

Yamashita and other seal advocates say more public outreach is needed, both to educate tourists ahead of any seal encounters and to combat the misinformation.<\/p>\n

The day after the Lahaina monk seal was attacked, lifeguards on O\u02bbahu found a seal floating lifeless offshore in N\u0101n\u0101kuli. A photo of the animal posted to Facebook by one of those lifeguards, Danny Kim, shows what appear to be white markings scraped across the seal\u2019s dorsal end.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In his post, Kim said he believed a boat hit the animal. Officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced last week they plan to do a post-mortem exam to try and determine what happened. The seal wasn\u2019t tagged, but NOAA staff later identified it as RH32, or Ka\u02bbale, a 10-year-old male from that part of the island.<\/p>\n

Christopher Latronic, a spokesperson for the Honolulu Ocean Safety Department, said Wednesday that the lifeguard speculated upon discovering the untagged seal that it might be one of two seals they regularly see in the area. \u201cThey have not seen any seals since,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

More Problems On Moloka\u02bbi<\/p>\n

Some 1,600 Hawaiian monk seals are now estimated to live in the wild, roughly 100 more than federal officials pegged the population to be several years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The slight gains come after hunting decimated the seal\u2019s population in the mid-19th century, according to NOAA<\/a>. Habitat loss, hookings and entanglements in fishing gear and lack of food have slowed the species\u2019 recovery, the federal agency says.<\/p>\n

Some 400 monk seals live in the Main Hawaiian Islands, often hauling out to rest and even give birth on popular beaches. Kaimana Beach, on the edge of Waik\u012bk\u012b, has become a popular birthing spot in recent years.\u00a0The rest live in the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, which are protected under a federal marine monument.<\/p>\n

\"CrowdVisitors gather behind temporary fencing to observe Kaiwi the monk seal and her newborn pup at Kaimana Beach. (Tia Lewis\/Civil Beat\/2026)<\/p>\n

Volunteers installed temporary fencing and warning signs at Kaimana after the monk seal Kaiwi gave birth to a pup May 3<\/a>, two days before the attack in Lahaina. Mom and pup are expected to stay at Kaimana for several weeks until the pup weans, with state wildlife officers and volunteers keeping watch.<\/p>\n

On Maui, Mayor Richard Bissen vowed to personally see<\/a> that Lytvynchuk, who was vacationing there, would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.\u00a0If convicted, Lytvynchuk faces up to one year in prison for each charge plus fines of up to $50,000 under the Endangered Species Act and up to $20,000 under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.<\/p>\n

Initially, authorities believed the seal nearly hit was a female named Lani but later determined it was a different, male seal, Bissen said in an Instagram post Thursday.<\/p>\n

Across the 8-mile channel from Maui on Moloka\u02bbi, Yamashita said he\u2019s responded to around 10 suspicious seal deaths since 2023. That\u2019s despite a concerted community effort in recent years, he said, to patrol certain beaches and break the island\u2019s recent history of attacks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"MalamaThe Hawaiian monk seal RQ76, also known as Malama, during a rehabilitation stint on Hawai\u2018i island between August 2022 and January 2023. The seal was found killed from blunt-force trauma in March, officials say. (Courtesy: The Marine Mammal Center, NOAA Permit #24359\/2023)<\/p>\n

Yamashita blamed Moloka\u02bbi\u2019s spate of attacks on a deliberate misinformation campaign by a vocal minority of locals egged on by outside fishing interests. The group, he added, claims the seals compete with local fishers for food and don\u2019t belong on the island.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was real embarrassment among the broader community that this was happening, and so there\u2019s been a real effort to educate,\u201d Yamashita said Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"StitchedIgor Lytvynchuk was charged this week for harassing and attempting to harass a protected animal. (United States District Court of Hawai\u02bbi\/2026)<\/p>\n

Dead monk seals stopped appearing on Moloka\u02bbi\u2019s southwestern shore after community members ramped up efforts to monitor those beaches earlier this decade.\u00a0But then, he said, carcasses started appearing in new places \u2013 mostly along Moloka\u02bbi\u2019s northwestern shoreline, such as Mo\u2018omomi Beach and other parts that are harder for the public to access.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important, the Moloka\u02bbi native said, that his community realize the spate of monk seal deaths never really stopped there, even after all the embarrassing publicity from several years back. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t see a completely healthy seal snagged on the reef because it\u2019s dead, right?\u201d Yamashita said. \u201cYou don\u2019t see them laying on the beach dead. That is not typical.\u201d<\/p>\n

NOAA did not respond to requests for comment this week on whether it has deemed any additional monk seal deaths in recent years were intentional killings.<\/p>\n

Bissen, who also oversees Moloka\u02bbi as mayor of Maui County, declined this week to say whether there\u2019s anything he could do to protect monk seals there. Bissen\u2019s focus is on the Lahaina monk seal attack, his communications team wrote via email, and its legal implications.<\/p>\n

Enforcement Challenges<\/p>\n

Out of at least 16 incidents of confirmed, intentional monk seal killings by humans in the past 17 years that remain unsolved, federal officials have only managed to prosecute one case. That incident, on Kaua\u02bbi, dates back to 2009.<\/p>\n

Rachel Hager, a spokesperson for NOAA\u2019s fisheries office, said the agency needs clear evidence it can act on<\/a> in order to successfully prosecute those who harass or kill the seals. Asked about NOAA\u2019s budget and staffing levels, Hager said the agency does not comment on personnel issues. <\/p>\n

Maria Sagapolu, assistant director of the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement\u2019s Pacific Islands Division, said in 2024<\/a> that there were fewer than 12 people to cover enforcement of the entire U.S. Pacific region, including Hawai\u2018i, Guam and other U.S. territories.<\/p>\n

\"AA public Facebook post by Honolulu lifeguard Danny Kim shows the lifeless monk seal he and a colleague discovered last week off N\u0101n\u0101kuli. The seal had markings on its dorsal end, and Kim believed it was hit by a boat. (Courtesy: Facebook)<\/p>\n

The Pacific represents the smallest of the OLE\u2019s five divisions but has to cover the largest area, according to Sagapolu, representing some 1.7 million square miles.<\/p>\n

The state, however, recently added three Aquatic Resources Division positions on Moloka\u02bbi, funded through the University of Hawai\u02bbi, to support the community\u2019s efforts to monitor wildlife there including monk seals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing a handoff,\u201d Yamashita said, from federal authorities to state and local officers taking a bigger role help protect the seals.<\/p>\n

Among the $7.5 million in green fee tourism outreach funding cut by the Legislature was a $700,000 proposal to work with the tourism industry on better visitor outreach and more \u201cculturally grounded messaging that promotes safe wildlife interactions,\u201d according to a statement from the Department of Land and Natural Resources on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Those dollars also would have funded a pilot marine protected species reporting app, the agency said, for the community to help report a host of threats related to Hawai\u02bbi\u2019s wildlife, including monk seals. The project was recommended by Gov. Josh Green\u2019s volunteer Green Fee Advisory Council, but the Senate removed its funding last month.<\/p>\n

\"MonkThe monk seal Kaiwi plays with a week-old pup at Kaimana Beach in 2021. Kaiwi gave birth to a new pup earlier this month. (Cory Lum\/Civil Beat\/2021)<\/p>\n

On Moloka\u02bbi, Yamashita said, most community members care deeply for the monk seals. Volunteers work with Hawaiian charter school students to thoughtfully name the seals and foster a deeper connection with the native animals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s its family history? Who does the seal come from? And what was the environment like when it was born, or where it was born? And we take all of these things and we haku \u2013 we weave them into a name,\u201d Yamashita said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives these kids ownership,\u201d he said. \u201cIt tells them that this is your resource. It\u2019s important enough that you\u2019re the one who names it, and your kuleana from this point is to acknowledge the importance of the seals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Civil Beat\u2019s coverage of climate change and the environment is supported by The Healy Foundation, the Marisla Fund of the Hawai\u2018i Community Foundation and the Frost Family Foundation.<\/p>\n

\"Civil<\/p>\n

Sign up for our FREE morning newsletter and face each day more informed.<\/p>\n

Sign Up<\/p>\n

\n Sorry. That’s an invalid e-mail.\n <\/p>\n

\n Thanks! We’ll send you a confirmation e-mail shortly.\n <\/p>\n

\t\t\t