Papahānaumokuākea: 2025 Monk Seal and Sea Turtle Field Season Highlights

Every summer, NOAA Fisheries leads field missions across the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument to protect endangered Hawaiian monk seals, threatened green sea turtles (honu), and their fragile habitats. Field teams help recovery efforts by monitoring wildlife, rescuing entangled animals, tagging individuals, assessing health, and safeguarding habitat.

In 2025, we streamlined our long-standing Population Assessment and Recovery Camps into a condensed season with three separate coordinated cruises. Although we shortened our time at most sites, Lalo (French Frigate Shoals) still hosted a full 4-month camp, focused on intensive monitoring and critical life-saving interventions.

Monk Seal Highlights

• Researchers documented 127 monk seal births, including a record 25 at Kapou—the highest number since 2006
• Preliminary data for the number of monk seal pups born in the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in 2025: Nihoa - 1, Mokumanamana - 6, Lalo - 47, Kamole - 47, Kapou - 25, Manawai - 12, Kuaihelani - 20, Hōlanikū - 16
• Drone surveys expanded monitoring at Nihoa, Manawai, and Kamole, helping to reduce disturbance, improve safety, and resight rehabilitated seals like DT12
• Two rehabilitated monk seals were returned to Lalo in May after months of care at the Marine Mammal Center’s seal hospital in Kona, Hawai‘i
• The science team quickly freed a seal entangled in a discarded fishing net off of Gin Island, Lalo and pulled the net out of the water to avoid more entanglements. In 2020, larger holes were cut in the seawalls, which has helped reduce seal entrapments over the past few years. 

Sea Turtle (Honu) Highlights

• Three researchers spent 4 months at Lalo, camping on Tern and East islands to survey basking turtles during the day and nesting turtles at night
• More than 90 percent of all honu migrate to Lalo to reproduce every few years. This season, we recorded about 570 individuals.
• Tern Island remains the primary nesting site, with about 60 percent of Lalo’s honu nesting there
• On Tern, the team worked to prevent wildlife from getting trapped in degrading World War II structures. Despite daily entrapment surveys, debris cleanup, and installing barriers, we recorded 81 marine turtle entrapments—77 were adult females coming ashore to nest. We also freed 25 seabirds from entrapments.
• Uncrewed aircraft systems helped monitor nesting turtles, basking groups, and habitat loss without disturbing animals and sensitive areas
• Ongoing data supports long-term recovery and population modeling for this globally important rookery

Partnerships in Action

Just like in 2024, this year’s work succeeded through strong partnerships with:

• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – supporting monk seal and turtle monitoring at Kuaihelani (Midway Atoll)
• Papahānaumokuākea Marine Debris Project – removing debris and keeping habitats safe
• State of Hawai‘i Department of Land and Natural Resources – providing research biologists for extra survey coverage at Hōlanikū (Kure Atoll)

These achievements underscore the power of teamwork. From quick drone surveys under 800-foot cliffs, to months spent living and working on remote islands, every effort protects Hawaiʻi’s vulnerable marine life.