Tuesday, February 24, 2009

The Infamous RO42 Visits Oahu

A Blog Lady,
Today (Monday), 3:50pm, the Naughty Girl...R042 arrived at Kaneohe Marine Corp Base in a nice Chevy Pickup. All the NOAA People were there, Schofield, Becker, Wurth, Braun, and Waterman (FROM NWHI GANG). Of course the loyal Volunteers were also present, anxious to meet the Rebel Girl....R042.

As she came in the Pickup, we all gazed into the large pen she arrived in. She is quite tan, beautiful and she snorted some, but was good. The cage was huge, heavy, difficult to get off the truck. Had problems lowering the tail gate but, finally got it moving lower. AS soon as the door was opened, Miss R042 split from the cage and headed straight to the water, immediately exploring the entire pen. She was quite good and settled down.
Just as KP2, Miss R042 headed straight to the middle of the enclosure. Made her rounds on the bottom and swirled about checking all the perimeter. She is a beautifully colored, sandy female with large eyes. She had a patch on her back where a transmitter once was. There is a slight long line scar on her right side and a dark spot on her chest. She is a clean seal with not many markings.

Schofield threw some fish to R042, but, the little munchkin didn't eat any. David had to go in to remove the fish and R042 never seemed to care acutally.

She may be there just till thursday and then............relocated again to the North Western Hawaiian Islands. Hopefully, this beautiful female seal known as R042, will have a better life, find freedom in her new home, make us some babies to expand the growth of Monk Seals. Love her already and wishing her the best in her future.........Live free, stay safe, Great Seal.............We are all hoping you make it out there.
There, the poor seal is at the base, finally and is resting ok. I wonder if she will remain in the encloser, as she checked every spot and a few times she made big body to look above the fence. And she also stared out of the pen, looking way out and beyond...just as KP2 had done.



3 comments:

Barbara said...

2/24/09...We had our watch with R042 and in my opinion, she is harmless, quiet, alert and...Beautiful! We redid the door,as Schofield thought she could have a better area to bask when the serges came in. She never seemed to care about us being there, making loud sounds with the slide hammer and all. She just took a snooze, but, peeked every now and then. She was like a well behaved puppy. I wish with all my heart, she could still remain here, where she was born...how sad to see her go. It would have been great finding her on our daily searches. But, we wish her the best. I hope she finds peace in her new home. I have learned Monk Seals adapt to their surroundings and just exist. Too bad man interfeared with her life,making her friendly. So long sweet seal..R042, the naughty seal who loved people.

Barbara said...

OOPPSS!!!!! I am sorry, I didnt mean to leave out Nichole Davis, who was also at the Base with the other NOAA FOLKS!!! She was at our watch and we shared some incredible seal stories and whale ones too. She is a hard worker and I feel proud to have met her again. Hey Nichole!!! It was fun working with you yesterday!!! Be sealing ya soon!!!!

Dana Jones said...

What a beauty she is. No wonder everyone wants to touch her and pet her. I'll say my goodbyes tonight and pray for her continued health and growth to adulthood. She did a lot of swimming last night and then finally came out of the water about 7:30PM and right up to the cage and post to try to get a look at me. I moved over behind the boards where she couldn't see me, but could hear her snuffling and sniffing. I guess she just wanted to say hello and/or goodbye. I've been calling her Stalker Seal, but being from the South I think I like Rebel Girl better. Hopefully you will forget about people and be happy and thrive in your natural habitat. We already miss you.