Stevedores, or dockworkers, at Honolulu Harbor used a fishing net to capture a live skunk at Pier 1 on Wednesday morning.
Inspectors from the Hawaiʻi Department of Agriculture later picked up the skunk. It has been identified as a young male skunk.
It's currently being tested for rabies.
The container ship that was docked at Pier 1 on Tuesday was carrying cargo from North America and possibly other foreign ports.
The ship left Wednesday morning for Kahului Harbor, where personnel have been advised to look for other stowaway animals.
This is the fourth skunk captured alive at Honolulu Harbor since February 2018. A live skunk was captured at Kahului Harbor in December 2020, and another was captured at a Maui trucking company in August 2018
Skunks are prohibited in Hawaiʻi — except for permitted research and at municipal zoos.
In the U.S., they are recognized as one of the four primary wild carriers of rabies, a fatal viral disease of mammals that is often transmitted through the bite of an infected animal.
Hawaiʻi is the only state in the U.S. and one of the few places in the world that is free of rabies.
