Earlier this year, researchers found a pair of juvenile monk seals in the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and that were malnourished. If left alone, they would have died. Therefore, scientists brought them to Ke Kai Ola monk seal hospital in Kailua-Kona, on the Big Island of Hawaii. After more than three months, the pups have been able to regain their health.

Seals have been named Pearl and Hermes. The former one weighs around 135 pounds and Hermes is 156 pounds. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration monk seal research team is now planning to release them back in the wild by the end of this month.

Deb Wickham, operations manager at the Ke Kai Ola, said that he is quite excited. Ke Kai Ola has lately celebrated its one-year anniversary. It has rehabilitated 8 seals and six of them have been released back into the wild and the remaining two will be released next week.

In addition, the federal government is taking steps to protect Hawaiian monk seals. The government has decided to increase the critical habitat for the species by 7,000 square miles and will include areas around Oahu, Maui, Kauai, Niihau and Big Island.

There are now two monk seal species remaining. The Hawaiian monk seal and Mediterranean monk seal, both are critically endangered. There was also the Caribbean monk seal, which has now become extinct and was last seen in 1952.