Two weeks after a seal and her pup teamed up on a woman swimming off Waikiki, fourth grade students from Waikiki Elementary School on Wednesday gave the pup, PO8, a more apt name: Koalani, or “heavenly warrior.”

“We heard he was very independent,” said fourth grader Milena Peroff at a ceremony announcing the name on the second-floor lanai of the Kaimana Beach Hotel in Waikiki. Below, Koalani and his mother, Rocky, played in the shallows just off the beach. “I think it fits,” said fourth grader Lily Yasuda.

The school’s students chose the name through a strict democratic process, voting on four potential names through an online form over the weekend. Koalani won with 31 votes, just two more than Leahi Kai, after nearby Diamond Head.

“We hope that it makes the kids feel a sense of kuleana for these animals,” said Emily Greene, an education and engagement manager at Hawaii Marine Animal Response who coordinated the naming with the school. “These kids really do take this responsibility so seriously.”

The Hawaiian monk seal is an endangered species, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. In May the population exceeded 1,500 seals for the first time in two decades, NOAA announced.

Hawaii Marine Animal Response started choosing names for seal pups with the help of cultural practitioners on Molokai. Now the group turns to the school nearest to the pup’s birthplace to have its students select a fitting name, Greene said. In 2021, after the seal named Pua (flower) had a pup, students at Malama Honua Charter School in Waimanalo named it Mohala, meaning “blossoming.”

Koalani was born July 9 at Kaimana Beach, the 14th pup of Rocky, who recently turned 22 years old. Seventy percent of the time seals give birth where they were born, according to Greene, but Rocky, who was born on Kauai, had another pup, Kaimana, at Kaimana Beach in 2017. The mother and Koalani are expected to stay at Kaimana Beach at least through the middle of August.

Hawaiian monk seals are solitary, which allows them to develop unique personalities, Greene said. Koalani was “independent but clingy,” she said. He liked to play with slippers that beachgoers left on the sand. He has the same natural bleach spot as his mom on his front left flipper.

On July 24 a woman was swimming offshore from Rocky’s fenced-off nursing and resting area while the mother seal and her pup were also in the water. A video shows Rocky approach the 60-year-old woman as the mother seal likely perceived her as a threat to the pup. In the confrontation, in which Koalani joined in, the swimmer was injured, sustaining lacerations on her face, back and arm.

The woman, whose name was not released to the public, teaches elementary school in California. State Department of Land and Natural Resources officials investigated the incident and reported in a news release that the woman was in the “wrong place at the wrong time.”

The Hawaii Tourism Authority on Monday urged visitors to avoid Kaimana Beach while the seals remain there. Wildlife experts from NOAA recommend keeping a distance of 150 feet or visiting another beach altogether. On Friday the state Board of Land and Natural Resources is slated to hear a request to update rules governing endangered species by establishing a 50-yard restricted zone around monk seals in state waters or on state lands.

Among Greene’s next projects: securing a name for another local pup, who remains unnamed on the northeast corner of the island. Meanwhile, Wednesday’s naming ceremony marked a fruitful start to the new school year for students.

“Second week of school, we’re already on the news!” Milena said.