'Make better choices': Endangered monk seals keep getting two-foot-long eels stuck up their noses

National Post ^ | December 7, 2018 | Allyson Chiu, Washington Post

[Loyalist]

A relaxed-looking juvenile Hawaiian monk seal lounges near a sandy white beach on some green foliage. Its eyes are half-closed and it has a serene expression on its face. But the seal’s calm demeanor is surprising. Why? Well, there’s a long, black-and-white eel dangling from its right nostril.

“It’s just so shocking,” Claire Simeone, a veterinarian and monk seal expert based in Hawaii, told The Washington Post on Thursday. “It’s an animal that has another animal stuck up its nose.”

Simeone wasn’t the only person stunned by the photo of the seal and its unusual facial ornament that was shared earlier this week on Facebook by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program. The picture – taken this year in the remote northwestern Hawaiian islands – has since gone viral, drawing attention to a rare phenomenon that continues to baffle scientists who are now begging the endangered seals to “make better choices.”

….

Though no seals have died or been seriously affected by the eels, having a dead animal up their noses for any extended amount of time poses potentially adverse health impacts, said Simeone, director of Ke Kai Ola, a monk seal hospital in Hawaii run by the Marine Mammal Center.

With an eel lodged in its nose, a monk seal would not be able to close the blocked nostril when diving, which means water could get into their lungs and cause problems, such as pneumonia, Simeone said. A decomposing eel carcass could also lead to infections, she said.

[Loyalist]

These seals have to help themselves out. If they're not going to stop sticking eels up their noses, they will be survived by superior species who don't.

[ClearCase_guy]

“Hey, Mr. Kotter! Up your nose with a two-foot long eel!”

[Psalm 73]

"...having a dead animal up their noses for any extended amount of time poses potentially adverse health impacts, said Simeone, director of Ke Kai Ola..."

Which should go without saying....I mean, for any of us.

[nevadapatriot]

>“Hey, Mr. Kotter! Up your nose with a two-foot long eel!”

..hose

[ConservativeMind]

Maybe this is theraputic.

[Yardstick]

This is clearly the new fad among young seals. It’s sort of their Tide pod challenge.

[Jeff Chandler]

They love it. It’s like coke for them.

[Jeff Chandler]

It’s sort of their Tide pod challenge.

Tide pool challenge.

[DuncanWaring]

Maybe it lost a bet.

[Yardstick]

Hah — good.

[gundog]

This is why whales evolved blowholes.

[Does so]

Eels are fish. This eel found the Monk Seal—not the other way around.

The eel's fine scales prevent the ready removal from the Monk Seal's nostril. It's unfortunate that the eel happened to be the "right" size. :(

[Roccus]

Obviously caused by globull warming climate change.

[farming pharmer]

I think it’s a lifestyle choice. We should tolerate, accept and praise his choice. /sarc

[RightGeek]

Closer to the condom challenge

[9YearLurker]

Quick, they need some vets to give them some hand transplants!

[9YearLurker]

I would think anything other than fine scales would just make the removal more painful!

[9YearLurker]

That is just so wrong.

[DannyTN]

Again. Sounds like a fad. You know like stupid human fads...

• Streaking
• LA Highway shootings
• Postal worker terrorism
• Goldfish swallowing
• Telephone booth stuffing
• Pet Rocks
• Planking
• Flash Dances

And I'm really hoping that the current trend of facial piercings and excessive tattoos makes the list sooner than later. If it becomes a trend instead of a fad, well I'm leaving.

[Bob434]

What next? Tide Pod eating Seals?