A three-month-old Hawaiian monk seal, one of the rarest marine mammals in the world, died alone in the water just off Mokulē'ia Beach on Oʻahu's North Shore. He was found tangled in an abandoned fishing net, the kind of gear that is supposed to be checked and retrieved, not left behind to keep trapping and killing anything that swims into it.

Hawaiʻi's Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement responded once the seal was already gone. DOCARE Chief Jason Redulla did not mince words about what happened, calling it "irresponsible, reckless, and negligent use of lay nets [that] kills aquatic life needlessly," according to the Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources.

That is the hardest part to accept: this did not have to happen. Hawaiʻi already restricts how lay nets can be used, but the rules and enforcement in place clearly were not enough to stop someone from walking away from their gear and letting it drift, snag, and kill. A pup that had barely started its life paid for that gap with its own.

Hawaiian monk seals are federally endangered and found nowhere else on Earth. Every pup lost to a preventable entanglement pushes an already struggling species closer to extinction.

Governor Josh Green, newly appointed DLNR Director Ryan Kanakaʻole, and North Shore state Representatives Amy Perruso and Sean Quinlan all have the power to close this gap: stronger tracking and retrieval requirements for lay nets, tougher penalties for abandoned gear, and real protections in areas where monk seals are known to rest and nurse their pups.

Sign the petition to demand Hawaiʻi close the lay net loophole now, before another monk seal pays for someone else's negligence with its life.