AMBASSADORS OF ALOHA
The Hawaiian Monk Seal are commonly called the “Ambassadors of Aloha” due to their roots to the Hawaiian Islands and their contribution to bringing visitors to the islands. Tourism is the largest source of private capital into the Hawaiian Islands, contributing $11.4 billion in visitor spending and $1 billion in tax revenue (Tourism Helps Provide, 2010). Over 90% of species in Hawaii are endemic, meaning they can't be found anywhere else on the globe (Hawaii Is The Endangered Species Capital Of The World, 2013). This brings tourists from across the globe to see the rare species and explore the unique Hawaiian Islands. The Monk Seal is part of this economy and if it were to go extinct, the Hawaiian economy would lose a section of their private capital. The section that could be lost can’t be quantified because of the possible repercussions the extinction of one species could have on its ecosystem and ultimately the economy. In addition, the Hawaiian Islands have been crowned with the unflattering title of the “endangered species capital of the world,” (Hawaii Is The Endangered Species Capital Of The World, 2013) which may further dissuade prospective tourists from visiting the islands and overall hurt the current tourism industry. Have you ever seen rare species while on vacation in cool countries or locations? Well, the Hawaiian Islands are one of those cool places, and it is this generation’s responsibility to save the species here on earth today.
A SMART INVESTMENT
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's recovery plan for the Hawaiian Monk Seal, states that 35 million dollars are needed in the first five fiscal years to start conservation efforts. In that time, the state of Hawaiian will have already made over 1.2 billion dollars through their wildlife watching oriented businesses. The benefits tremendously outweigh the initial cost of preservation, and would continue a bountiful revenue for the Hawaiian Islands (Tourism Helps Provide, 2010)
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in the state of Hawaii, 256 million dollars was spent in 2010 on wildlife watching activities. This measured the seal’s instrumental value, which quantifies the ways a species benefits humans, such as ecotourism, providing a medicine or giving genetic information to science. Instrumental value disregards a species's ecological value which takes into account all the benefits it provides in its ecosystem such as nutrient cycling, predator-prey relationships and natural services. The seals are a large contributing factors to tourists’ interest in snorkel tours of the coastal waters of Kauai where a sub-population has been growing in recent years (Hawaiian Monk Seals).
According to a survey carried out by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 81% of hotel visitors on the Hawaiian Islands expressed willingness to add $1 per day to their room rate to preserve natural areas, coastline, and Hawaiian cultural sites. On top of that, over 90% of visitors to Hawaii indicated that the preservation of natural areas would be an important factor in their decision to return to the islands (Ambassadors of Aloha, 2013). It is clear that tourists visiting Hawaii care about endangered species and the wildlife. The loss of the Hawaiian Monk Seal would not only impact visitor’s decisions to return to Hawaii or not but many other endangered species and the larger aquatic ecosystem.
NOAA estimates that the cost of recovery for the Hawaiian Monk Seal to be 378 million dollars for the next 54 years. The plan focuses their economic resources to battling food limitation, decreasing entanglement and a long term strategy of researching and monitoring, which will hopefully provide the Hawaiian Monk Seal a path towards full recovery. With the Monk Seal being Hawaii's State Mammal, it is even more important to take action promptly and not be the generation to wipe out a whole species. Other than the California Grizzly, no other state animal has gone extinct (Monachus schauinslandi, 2013). It would be a tragedy if the Hawaiian Monk Seal, a species held close to the hearts of many, were to go extinct any time soon or ever for that matter.
