Title: The Rescue
Edition Size: 40
Artist: Jason O'Rourke
License: Extended Editorial

Monk Seal RK58 (his official NOAA designation, as seals born on Kauai don't have nicknames) is one of The Marine Mammal Center's success stories... rescued not once, but twice.

Born in 2018 on a busy Kauai birth beach, he was involved in a “pup swap” when he attempted to nurse from another mother on the beach, and when he returned to his mother, she wouldn’t take him back.

After multiple attempts to reunite the mother and pup pair, NOAA staff and volunteers left for the night, hoping to find them together in the morning. I happened to be on Kauai and observed their efforts in person, snapping this shot of RK58, alone on the beach, as the sun was setting.

In the morning, NOAA would return to find his mother had left and scooped him up ahead of a hurricane warning, and transported him to the Big Island's Ke Kai Ola facility, funded by the Marine Mammal Center, for rehabilitation.

The facility, supported by nonprofit donations, fattened RK58 up to a healthy weaning weight and returned him to Kauai. This was the first of his two rescues.

His second rescue came in February of 2021, when a juvenile monk seal was rescued after a suspected dog attack, resulting in infected puncture wounds in his head, neck, and flipper. Once again, RK58 was transported to the Big Island, treated and rehabilitated at the Ke Kai Ola facility on the Big Island and released on Kauai.

Without these direct interventions, he would not be here today.

On my most recent trip to Kauai, in February 2023, I heard from some visitors to the Spouting Horn blowhole on Kauai's south shore that they had just seen a Hawaiian monk seal swimming by when I had stepped away from the viewing area to swap lenses. I was surprised but didn't think much of it. As I drove away from Spouting Horn, I observed a recently hauled out monk seal on a nearby beach.

I stopped to observe the animal, and reported it to the local NOAA coordinator. In the process of snapping shots of the seal resting, I got a quick shot of his flipper tags, and was surprised to find a red-tag (R), with the letter number combination K58. I hadn't seen him since that sunset shot in 2018, but here he was, healthy and resting on one of Kauai's south shore beaches.

RK58 is The Rescue, and a fantastic example of the success that can be had with all of the partners working together to rescue this species from extinction.

Jason O'Rourke is an award-winning wildlife and landscape photographer living in Hawaii, recognized by National Geographic YourShot, Outdoor Photographer, Hawaii Magazine, Digital Photo, American Photo, the Los Angeles Times, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, PhotoCon Hawaii, and Turtle Bay Resort.