NOAA officials have captured a monk seal in the northwest Hawaiian Islands that has killed several young seals. 

While officials had plans to euthanize the endangered mammal last summer, other options are now being evaluated after officials recently caught it and transported it to Oahu. 

KE18 can never be returned to the wild because of the continued threat he poses to pups and juveniles so he is being temporarily housed on Oahu while we continue to evaluate available options – both lethal and non-lethal. A fortuitous set of events has given us an alternative that was not available last summer.