{"id":835959,"date":"2026-09-04T07:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T07:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/835959\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T07:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T07:42:12","slug":"noaa-offers-20000-for-tips-on-monk-seals-death-on-molokai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/835959\/","title":{"rendered":"NOAA offers $20,000 for tips on monk seal\u2019s death on Molokai"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"COURTESY<\/p>\n

COURTESY DOCARE<\/p>\n

Hawaiian monk seal RU68, a one-year-old female, was found deceased on a Molokai beach.<\/p>\n

Federal wildlife officials are offering a reward of up to $20,000 for information leading to the criminal conviction of persons involved in the recent death of an endangered Hawaiian monk seal on Molokai.<\/p>\n

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Law Enforcement is investigating the death of RU68, a 1-year-old female seal, after she was found dead on a Molokai shoreline on Aug. 20. NOAA has determined the seal\u2019s death was due to human causes.<\/p>\n

Based on preliminary evidence from a necropsy, NOAA said the seal died from blunt force trauma to the head sometime on Aug. 17 or 18.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are asking the public for any information about individuals who may have been involved,\u201d said NOAA in a news release. \u201cWe are offering a reward of up to $20,000 for information leading to a criminal conviction or the assessment of a civil penalty.\u201d<\/p>\n

NOAA said the seal\u2019s death is a violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and Endangered Species Act. Both acts prohibit harassing, harming, killing or feeding monk seals, with violations punishable by up to $100,000 in fines and up to 1 year in jail.<\/p>\n

Anyone with information about the death should call the NOAA enforcement hotline at (800) 853-1964.<\/p>\n

Don’t miss out on what’s happening!<\/p>\n

Stay in touch with breaking news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It’s FREE!<\/p>\n

Anonymous tips are accepted, but to be eligible for the reward, the tipster must include their name and contact information.<\/p>\n

NOAA said all names and contact information received will remain confidential and will not be shared with the public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COURTESY DOCARE Hawaiian monk seal RU68, a one-year-old female, was found deceased on a Molokai beach. Federal wildlife…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":835960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[30388,79,201],"class_list":["post-835959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-molokai","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}