A man is facing a federal investigation after throwing a rock at a protected monk seal in Hawaii and then yelling, ‘I’m rich!’
Kaylee Schnitzer was on the beach in Lahaina, Maui, when she spotted the man and a woman getting close to the endangered seal.
Suddenly, the man picked up a ‘coconut-sized’ rock and hurled it at the seal. It landed inches from the animal, who was visibly spooked.
Afterwards, the seal lay down and didn’t move for a while. It’s unclear if the seal was injured.
Kaylee, filming, yelled at the man: ‘What are you doing? Why would you throw a rock at it?’
She told KHON 2 that she and a friend called the police. The man then replied to them: ‘I don’t care. Fine me, I’m rich.’
Police arrived at the beach and detained the man, who has been identified as a 37-year-old man from Seattle, Washington.
He hasn’t been criminally charged yet, but is facing a federal investigation from the Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement.
The seal, named by locals as Lani, is known to play and frequent the shallow water off the coast of Lahaina.
There are only an estimated 1,600 mature Hawaiian monk seals left in the wild, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
They were declared an endangered species in 1976.
The species is protected under the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the State of Hawaii law.
The seals are known to be territorial if threatened by humans or other predators.
In 2022, a monk seal dragged a woman underwater when she got too close to its newborn pup in Waikiki, Hawaii.
Footage from the scene shows the seal, nicknamed Rocky, barking and looking for her pup before charging at the woman.
She tried to get away and splashed at Rocky, but she ended up being dragged underwater. She was taken to the hospital with cuts to her face, back and arm.
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