This Hawaiian Monk Seal has an unusual problem: An eel is stuck up its nose! Biologists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found the juvenile seal in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands this past summer. The team acted fast to remove the slippery intruder by pulling the eel out of the seal’s nostril. The eel didn’t survive the experience, but the seal was unharmed.
This was the fourth time in several years that the NOAA team had come across a seal in the same bizarre situation. How the eels ended up in the seals’ nostrils, though, remains a mystery. Hawaiian monk seals poke their noses under rocks and in sand to search for prey, like eels, that like to hide. An eel trying to escape being eaten could wriggle into a seal’s nostril and become trapped.
Another theory is that a seal could regurgitate an eel it ate. “Like if someone laughs too hard while drinking milk, and the milk comes out their nose,” says veterinarian Claire Simeone. She directs the Hawaiian Monk Seal Hospital at the Marine Mammal Center in Hawaii. The hospital cares for sick or injured monk seals. The endangered animals need all the help they can get, since only about 1,400 remain in the wild.
Simeone says it’s a really good thing the NOAA team was there to help the seal. Monk seals close their nostrils tight when diving. The stuck eel would have made it difficult for the seal to safely hunt for food underwater. And since the eel died, it could have rotted in the seal’s nose, making the seal vulnerable to infection.