According to reports, federal fisheries authorities are looking forward to over double the population of endangered Hawaiian monk seals in main islands of the state. A draft management plan related to the endangered species has been released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Marine Fisheries Service.

Out of total number of these species, roughly 200 reside in the main Hawaiian Islands.Around 1,100 Hawaiian monk seals are there in total and the majority of them are living in the unoccupied Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Under the US Endangered Species Act in 1976, the creature was declared endangered.

According to NOAA's Hawaiian Monk Seal Recovery Coordinator Rachel Sprague, the population of these creatures has been growing in the main Hawaiian Islands, but the population on the whole, is declining.

According to Sprague, "The main Hawaiian Islands have a fairly small portion of the overall monk seal population. If climate change or sea level rise or infectious disease did get into the population, they could be really catastrophic for such a small population”.

He added that in place of thinking regarding making attempts to do various active interventions, they’re making efforts to create a condition for supporting growth of the monk seal population. He said that they want the population to reach an extent that it could be thought as recovered.

Among major goals of the plan, one is to have a stable or increasing population of over 500 seals in the main Hawaiian Islands by providing sufficient marine habitat to help the monk seal breed and forage in nature.