Monk Seal Visits #PTC22

I realize this looks like a piece of drift wood. It actually is a Hawaiian monk seal the hauled up on the beach in fron of the Hilton Hawaiian Villiage, where #PTC22 is being held, Sunday earcly evening.  

In more than 20-some years of attending PTC, this is the second time I've seen one on Waikiki. 

They don't do much but sleep when they come ashore. 

Some say this is just a log. The Hilton staff who surrounded it with traffic cones and barrier tape did not believe it was a log. 

The Hawaiian monk seal is one of the most endangered seal species in the world, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Marine Mammal Center

The population overall had been declining for six decades and current numbers, though increasing, are only about a third of historic population levels.

Hawaiian monk seals are found in the Hawaiian archipelago which includes both the main and Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and rarely at Johnston Atoll which lies nearly 1,000 miles southwest of Hawai'i. These monk seals are endemic to these islands, occurring nowhere else in the world. Hawaiian monk seals are protected under the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and State of Hawai'i law.