Suspect Faces Justice in Monk Seal Attack

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]And last week a viral video appearing to show a man throwing a rock at a Hawaiian monk seal on Maui sparked widespread outrage online.

[00:00:08]>> The endangered animals are protected under both federal and state law, and harassing or attempting to harm a Hawaiian monk seal can lead to serious penalties.

[00:00:17]>> And joining us right now with reaction is Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen.

[00:00:21]Aloha, Mr. Mayor.

[00:00:23]Aloha, David D and Lina Girl. Thank you folks for having me on. Well, thank you so much for uh spending some time with us. I know you're super, super busy running Maui County, but let's ask you, when you first watched the video, what What was the first thing that went through your mind, sir? And And what steps did you take immediately after?

[00:00:38]Yeah, I think I had the same reaction as everyone else, just outrage. Uh you know, the thought was you have a harmless, non-threatening uh you know, animal that's just doing its thing, and somebody decides to try to harm it. And you know, and when you see what they do, you're wondering what was their reason, um and what would have happened had they hit They actually hit the animal. I mean, would they have gone in to try to put it out of its misery? Would they have tried to save it? What would they have done? I mean, what would have been the next step?

[00:01:13]>> Mhm. And thankfully, uh Lani is is healthy and and safe and being monitored right now by our people here on Maui. Uh she's not back in that area right now.

[00:01:24]We know where she is.

[00:01:26]Um she's she's shied away from that place for the for the time being, but yeah, I'm just going to use the word outrage. I think that's what everybody else was feeling cuz nobody could understand. It just didn't make We were watching it, but we didn't It didn't make any sense. Yeah. We We totally get it. Now, what What can you tell us about the status of the suspect and the investigation right now? Because we know they were taking extra steps on this, right?

[00:01:48]>> I know it's being worked on by our federal government right now. Uh I know today there are things happening at the United States Attorney's Office with uh the United States Attorney Ken Sorenson and his staff and he's doing a really good job. They got on it right away.

[00:02:03]Really got to give credit to the DNR or the Dole Care uh department division of the DNR uh who also got on it right away.

[00:02:12]I know state law enforcement. So, we got uh you know, a lot of folks working on it from the state and the federal side.

[00:02:18]On the county side, we just stand ready to assist um if we need to prosecute the case, our prosecutors are aware and are also involved in this uh sort of group effort that's happening, uh which is not unusual that happens, but uh since this person is an out-of-state resident, you know, there are some different steps that that will be involved. Um but right now I think the I have not made contact with him, not our office, but I know uh the state uh law enforcement did reach out to this individual.

[00:02:50]And again, right now we're just going to follow the lead uh the United States Attorney's Office. Well, the cool thing about it is, Mr. Mayor, you're a former prosecutor, a former judge, so you are the right man for such a time as this as this uh event and uh the results of it unfolds. Now, I don't know if you saw the other video that made the rounds online that appeared to show someone taking matters into their own hands.

[00:03:12]Have you seen it and and what's your response to that?

[00:03:14]>> Yeah, certainly saw it as well.

[00:03:16]Um you know, we're not condoning any sort of violence, obviously. Uh my career has been one where people are held accountable for their actions in the courtroom. And that was really what we were advocating for is that if this guy did something wrong, that he faces legal penalties and consequences. But I got to say I can certainly understand, like everybody else can understand, how someone would react um for what's happened. And uh you know, at this point, I don't know what's happened along those lines uh seeing that what has happened since then, Uh we didn't receive any reports actually at the Maui Police Department for any report of violence or assault.

[00:04:03]So, you know, we'll just see how that works itself out as well.

[00:04:06]Now, Mayor Bissen, thank you so much for that.

[00:04:09]If anything, the one message that we have been wanting to share with people is that Maui is open, right? That you folks are open and you know, you know, welcoming our visitors as well as our kama'aina to come and visit. At the same time though, what would you like visitors to know as they travel to Maui?

[00:04:26]Yeah, you know, I've been hearing different, you know, reactions as of course people wanting to educate the public. There are lots of things we educate our visitors on. We educate them on watching out for, you know, waves and currents when they're in the water. I mean, you know, watch for for jellyfish or you know, there's things that people are not familiar with.

[00:04:46]But on something like this, I don't think anybody has to be told you don't throw a rock at a helpless animal.

[00:04:53]I mean, all the education in the world would not change. This individual did something that they thought for kicks or to impress whoever around him. I have no idea why he did what he did. But the point of it was that that's a piece that I don't know that needs education so much. That's just, you know, good people doing good things and not so good people not doing good things. But I think for us, we want to continue to to let our visitors know that we do value the culture, the aina, the the the vai, the kai, the things that make our place special and who we are, part of who we are. I think that's the the piece we want to educate people on that it's all important to us.

[00:05:35]Um, yes, so you know, this can sometimes set back the issue of visitors when, you know, people will say, "See, I told you not to let people, you know, go in that area because they're going to mistreat." This is an exception. This is not what normally happens. Our visitors are very respectful. We we see many repeat visitors.

[00:05:55]So again, this isn't a knock on all of our our visitors by any means.

[00:06:00]This is just an individual situation that happened and it is not the typical, which is why it's so outrageous. But I would say that for us, we want our visitors to know that this is a safe place to visit. This is a a great place to visit throughout Hawaii. All of Hawaii is actually. And so I guess that's still the message.

[00:06:19]>> Beautiful message that is. We want to thank you so much for your time. Mayor Richard T. Bissen of Maui County, we appreciate you very much.

[00:06:28]Thank you so much. Aloha. Aloha.