It appears as though my Monachus gene may have had a slight hiccup, concerning the unknown , brown animal that I saw at HB yesterday. I left the house this morning braced to find Irma awaiting me this morning, but that was not to be the case.
It was not until 0728 when I got to the pier that I found critters, and the first thing I keyed on was the brown animal tucked into the base of the cliff at the left end of RI. When the animal moved down I found that it was Benny !!! Since all the other regulars in this quadrant have recently molted, his brown and green coat was a bit of an oddity. He is obviously on yet another of his routine runs between Ka'ena Point and Rabbit Island. I am reasonably sure that Benny was our mystery HB visitor yesterday, but of course my hardcore scientist buddies will never accept that. Benny moved down and entered the water at 1050. I did not see him again today.
The rest of the Rabbit Island cast was Sadie, who was along side Benny, Mojo who was also at the cliff, but 20 ft left of Benny and Sadie, and later arrivals R301, and Buster , also at the left end. Everyone except Benny was still there when I departed. Benny briefly interacted with Buster on his way to the water, but it was of no consequence.
Team Billand checked in at 1050 to report that they had found Kermit, alone, on Nimitz Beach. Irma has obviously given him the slip, and has been MIA 4 days now. I know she is out there just waiting to haul out at exactly the wrong time, in exactly the wrong place. We have been doing this little dance a long time.
By far the highlight of the day, was email from David Schofield, forwarding to me the results of Jennifer Shultzs' report on the finding on the remains found at Bellows, in the aftermath of the shark sightings in the Bellows and Kailua area several weeks ago. The C/C Medical Examiner had ruled out human , but Jenny ran tests and concluded that the remains ARE NOT Monk Seal !!!!!! As you all know Rabbit Island weaner Kerby has been MIA since that time, and I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop. Though I still have no idea where the boy is at, at least for this moment, and this incident, it is good news ! Aloha, DB
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