Her precious little snout was encrusted with sand and her limp and lifeless body lay sprawled across the beach. My mental plan was not elaborate, but it was all I had given my limited knowledge of the endangered Hawaiian monk seal. I would knock on the nearest Kauai vacation rental door, get something to clean her snout and in the event that she would take a breath, I would enlist the couple strolling down Poipu Beach to help me roll her back into the Pacific.
But the initiation of my plan was circumvented by a man with a rope and signs who was obviously coming to mark off the sad scene. I walked up to the volunteer ever so gently, placed my hand on his back and said, “Is there anything I can do?” Dave laughed. He looked me in the eye, as only a seasoned protector of monk seals could, and said, “She’s a mammal.
She can breathe. She’s fine. I’m just putting this rope up to protect her from tourists.
” The volunteer protector of the island’s 35 Hawaiian monk seals and 1,500 seals worldwide didn’t say, “I’m protecting her from clueless people like you,” because he didn’t have to. When I initially made plans to travel to Hawaii to escape life’s overwhelming busyness and to rediscover my soul’s peaceful state, I imagined infinity pools, mai tais and oceanside massages. The first island of Maui on my two-island Hawaiian adventure delivered my dreams with such intensity that I seriously thought about changing my vacation to a one-island visit.
The specta.