"The most incriminating footage we've ever seen!"
Hawaiians, as well as lovers of slick-skinned animals around the world, have reacted poorly to vision of a tourist giving hell to an endangered monk seal, an animal so rare there are only 1,600 left on earth, all the while standing in the middle of a burn zone that killed more than 100 people a little under two years back.
The incident was filmed by a witness on a friend’s family property on Front Street, still deep in Lahaina’s devastated core. The footage shows two tourists standing far closer than the legally mandated 50 feet from the seal, a female known to local conservationists as Lani.
The witness said they warned the man to back off. He didn’t. When Lani retreated into the water, playing with a piece of driftwood, showing no aggression, he threw a large rock in her direction.
NOAA Fisheries dispatched a biologist to assess whether Lani had been injured. The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources and Maui Police also responded.
Hawaiian monk seals are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Giving hell to the lil cuties can result in civil fines up to $100,000 and time in the can. Every one of the roughly 1,600 animals alive today is individually tracked and named by researchers.
Officials described the footage as the most incriminating they’d ever seen.
Responses to the footage on Instagram were uniform:
He needs prison and the death sentence!!! That’s a serial killer in the making.
Keep posting videos of people disrespecting our islands and committing crimes. The justice system is a joke but social media delivers.
The fucked up thing is he didn’t get beat down. I surf that beach a lot. Thank God I wasn’t there.
He’s lucky a few local Braddah’s weren’t around. Definitely would’ve gotten some cracks ….
Watching this instantly gave me heart palpitations out of instant rage. What kind of MONSTER would do that?!!! I’m glad I wasn’t there because I probably woulda started throwing rocks at that guy and then woulda been arrested.
You wonder why native Hawaiian people don’t want tourists in any place other than the tourist towns ? This is why !!
Why,why, why, why, would you throw a rock at an animal for just swimming in his world ? Sick !!!
When you saw footage were you outraged at attack or impressed by man’s ability to hurl hunk of rock so accurately?
I think, little of both, if we’re to be honest.