MONK SEAL with a SPOTTED EEL stuck in its noseNeomonachus schauinslandi©NOAA Fisheries/Brittany

MONK SEAL with a SPOTTED EEL stuck in its nose
Neomonachus schauinslandi
©NOAA Fisheries/Brittany Dolan

A juvenile Hawaiian monk seal was found with a spotted eel in its nose at French Frigate Shoals in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands this past summer. And it wasn’t the first time it happened.

Though NOAA has been monitoring the monk seal population in the northern islands of Hawaii for almost 40 years, this eel-in-the-nose problem has been observed a handful of times, but only since 2016.

The NOAA has proposed two hypotheses: first, that eels launch themselves defensively at the seals while they are foraging for food, shoving their mouths and noses into the crevices of coral reefs and under rocks.  

Another theory the agency suggests is that a seal may swallow an eel whole and then regurgitate it through its nose.

The conservation agency reassured concerned viewers that the eel was successfully removed, saying that the procedure required light restraint of the seal and a slow, steady pull on the eel, taking around 30 seconds in total. “In all cases the eel was successfully removed and the seals were fine. The eels, however, did not make it,” the agency said. Text Source

NOTE: Someone made a pandemic mask of a monk seal with an eel…
https://twitter.com/SamanthaSHauser/status/1290760993232941058/photo/1