{"id":836033,"date":"2026-09-04T09:16:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T09:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/836033\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T09:16:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T09:16:14","slug":"noaa-offers-up-to-20k-for-information-on-molokai-monk-seal-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/836033\/","title":{"rendered":"NOAA offers up to $20K for information on Molokai monk seal death"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) &#8211; The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is offering up to $20,000 to anyone with information about a Hawaiian monk seal death on Molokai.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">On Thursday, NOAA Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement said they were investigating the recent monk seal death, RU68, which appears to stem from human causes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The administration said a necropsy, an animal autopsy, found preliminary evidence suggesting the monk seal died from blunt force trauma to the head between Aug. 17 and 18.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The monk seal\u2019s death is a violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act. Violations can be prosecuted civilly or criminally and are punishbal by up to $100,000 in fines and up to one year in jail per violation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Anyone with information is asked to call the NOAA Enforcement Hotline at 800-853-1964.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Officials said tips can be left anonymously, but to be eligible for the reward, a name and contact information are required. All names and contact information are confidential and will not be released to the public.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">NOAA said it is looking for:<\/p>\n<p>Successful identification and\/orSuccessful prosecution for the person(s) responsibleArrest, conviction, or civil penalty assessment<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Any dead, stranded or injured marine animals can be reported to the NOAA Marine Wildlife Hotline at (888) 256-9840.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) &#8211; The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is offering up to $20,000 to anyone with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":836034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-836033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836033","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=836033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}