Hawaiian Monk Seal KP2

Hawaiian monk seal KP2 has won the hearts of Molokai residents. “I went in and that little guy loved me,” said Ingrid Toth, who swims daily off the Kaunakakai Wharf. “He would swim with me and go around my legs. He would go under me and hug me, and he would go on top of me.”

KP2′s popularity stems from the fact that he doesn’t seem to know he’s a seal, since he has spent most of his life surrounded by people. His mother rejected him at birth, and oceanic specialists rescued him less than 24 hours after he was born. NOAA, along with the Marine Mammal Center, raised him for nearly eight months and released him. When NOAA first realized KP2 was playing with people at the wharf, the agency moved him 40 miles away. But just two days later, KP2 was at the wharf again.

KP2 is now seventeen months old, weighs 175 pounds, and he has begun playfully grabbing swimmers from behind with his flippers. “We’ve had experiences before where a 300-pound animal is just looking to play and then starts holding people underwater for too long. And with how much KP2 likes being around people, we think he’s bound to get to that point,” says the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. For safety’s sake, NOAA officials are planning to have KP2 sent far from Molokai. Some Molokai islanders, however, are determined to keep him.