By Tanya Lewis, Staff Writer | April 04, 2014 12:09pm ET
A new hospital for sick or injured Hawaiian monk seals is nearing completion, and will open its doors to seagoing patients this summer
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The Hawaiian Monk Seal Hospital, being built in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, by The Marine Mammal Center, a nonprofit veterinary organization in Sausalito, Calif., is now fully funded. The $3.2 million facility will care for the critically endangered animals and release them back into the wild when healthy.
"Every little pup, specifically a female, that we can bring to reproductive age is going to help that population," Jeff Boehm, executive director at The Marine Mammal Center, told Live Science. "Every adult female that is injured or ill that we can bring back to health and get back out into the reproductive population is going to be significant."
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