Ke Kai Ola (The Healing Sea) is the name of the soon-to-be-built Hawaiian monk seal health care facility on Kailua-Kona.
Build a Hospital. Save a Species!
"A dedicated monk seal hospital will give more pups a better shot at survival and adult seals a second chance when they need it! This is an essential part of our plan for their survival."
-- Charles Littnan, Lead Scientist, Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program, NOAA Fisheries Service.
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Help save Hawaiian monk seals today!
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March 15, 2013
Construction has started on the new Hawaiian monk seal healthcare facility on Kailua-Kona! The site is situated at the foot of Hualālai volcano and the surface consists of barely weathered basalt lava flows dating from 1,500 to 3,000 years ago. Over the next several weeks heavy equipment will break up the uneven lava flow, creating a new access road and grading the site in preparation to construct the foundations of the new pens and pools.
The construction work is expected to last approximately six months. The hospital is designed to hold as many as 10 Hawaiian monk seals at a time for medical treatment.
February 1, 2013
Site Plans for New Hawaiian Monk Seal Hospital!
View plans for the new Hawaiian Monk Seal Hospital in Kailua-Kona
Thanks to your extraordinary support, we can now break ground on a dedicated hospital for endangered Hawaiian monk seals! You helped us raise more than $1.7 million, which will allow us to build pens and pools this summer and be positioned immediately thereafter to treat Hawaiian monk seal patients!
Having reached this milestone, we continue our campaign to raise the remaining $1.5 million to complete the entire project and make the dream of this first-of-its-kind hospital a reality. The completed facility will include a laboratory, food preparation area, and staff and volunteer support areas, in addition to an open-air visitor and education center. We look forward to working with our Hawaiian partners to make a difference for this iconic species.
Hospital Highlights:
- Two pens with pools for juvenile and adult seals and two pens with pools for neonates
- Quarantine areas
- Fish kitchen, medical lab and staff quarters buildings
- Photovoltaic panels
- Sustainable building materials
- Seawater air conditioning for the buildings
- Extensive seawater filtration infrastructure for pools
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The Marine Mammal Center to hold groundbreaking ceremony for new Hawaiian Monk Seal Hospital on September 15, 2012!
Sick and injured Hawaiian monk seals will get a second chance at survival thanks to a soon-to-be built specialized hospital that will serve as the main hospital for the Hawaiian Islands chain, dedicated to the rescue and care of this critically endangered species. During a private blessing celebration on September 15, 2012, The Marine Mammal Center, headquartered in Sausalito, CA, will break ground for the new Hawaiian Monk Seal Hospital that will be located on property owned by the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (NELHA) at Keahole Point, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. Hawaiian monk seals have been on the decline since modern surveying and the population of less than 1,100 individuals is declining by 4% annually. The Center is working in collaboration with NOAA Fisheries, the Hawaiian Monk Seal Recovery Team, Hawaii Wildlife Fund, the Kohala Center, NELHA, and several education organizations in this initiative to conserve Hawaiian monk seals.
“Every year we prolong the build of this hospital is another year in which we lose monk seals that could have been saved;” explained Dr. Jeff Boehm, executive director at The Marine Mammal Center, which has rescued and provided medical care for more than 17,500 marine mammals along the central and northern California coast since 1975. “The Center is a key partner in this timely and collaborative effort to lead in the conservation of Hawaiian monk seals. We’re positioned well to bring together the resources to build the Hawaiian Monk Seal Hospital and leverage our veterinary and scientific expertise with that of a passionate and supportive community, in order to help these animals in peril.”
To date, The Marine Mammal Center has raised $1.9 million, enough to begin the first phase of construction to include building pens and pools and to have the hospital operational by spring 2013. The $3.2 million project includes two neonate rehabilitation pens and pools, quarantine pen areas, two larger pens and pools for juvenile seals, as well as medical lab, staff office and a patient food preparation kitchen. Future plans call for an education pavilion.
Read more news about the hospital here!
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Groundbreaking Ceremony!
Turn on your speakers and enjoy a slideshow and video of the Groundbreaking and blessing ceremony that took place in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii - the site of the future Hawaiian monk seal hospital. Photos courtesy: Heather White Photography.
From the Executive Director, Jeff Boehm:
"We release hundreds of seal and sea lion patients into California waters each year. Those patients tell a story of the great work of the Center – from rescue, to clinical diagnosis and treatment, to the research that we pursue based on their illnesses. Each release is a cause for celebration for the Center team and for each patient. But, with strong populations of harbor seals, elephant seals and California sea lions along our coast, can we claim a sea lion release as a conservation success?
With a moving ground-breaking ceremony for our new Hawaiian monk seal hospital on September 15, the conservation impact of the Center becomes a lot more evident! Several of the Center's representatives joined colleagues, community members, donors and others to witness this remarkable milestone event. A traditional Hawaiian priest, a kahu, officiated over a blessing and wove history, culture, spiritualism and passion into his words. I was left with goose bumps. And, we, all of us, are underway with the construction of our newest satellite facility!
The Hawaiian monk seal population contains about 1,100 individuals and, as you’ll know by now, is dropping by about 4% per year. With every neonatal pup, juvenile, or adult that we will be able to treat at the new facility we will be poised to re-introduce animals back into the Hawaiian waters and into the breeding population. Now, that’s a conservation impact we can all be proud of!
Against an idyllic backdrop of the setting sun, Frances Gulland (senior scientist at the Center) and Sandor Straus (board member) dug in to the lava rock. One shovel will remain at the Kona facility and one will return to Sausalito for display and to help remind us of the powerful connection we have to the Islands, to the community here, and to the Hawaiian monk seal."
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