So adding on a little information to the mysterious at-sea travels of Kermit... for those of you that are new to this and are interested, here is the summary to date:
Kermit, our Oahu adult male seal, has been off island since about May 30th. He hasn't transmitted since he left and I was thinking maybe he had returned to Niihau where there are no cellphone towers. Alas, I was wrong. Kermit instead made an oceanic voyage. I haven't looked at all his dives yet, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of deep diving though he may have hit a couple of the shallower sea mounts. No idea what he was doing, but his greatest distance from shore was 250 miles. Total trip was about 1 month.
Okay now the update...so the tag only downloaded the first part of the trip and I figured he was on his way back and the next time the tag called in it would download the return. Well, apparently Kermit had some more wandering to do. In the map "More Kermit" you can see that he traveled even further from Oahu. The
maximum distance from Honolulu was 470 miles to the south or in other words about 2/3 of the way to Johnston if he swung west or just under half way to Palmyra. If you calculate total the distance of the trip so far (not including vertical movement which would add another 60 miles at least) and assume (which is apparently dangerous to do with this guy) a straight line trip back to Oahu, the total trip will be just about 2000 miles. Or in other words...if he had swam straight ENE to California he would have been just 300 miles short of visiting The Marine Mammal Center and Golden Gate Bridge.
I looked at all the dives on the track and they were all pretty shallow. Monk seals are benthic foragers and much of the ocean he was in was 5000+ meters deep. So he stayed towards the surface but was constantly diving. No idea if he was feeding. However, there seemed to be an area off the southeast of the Big Island he focused on. Hung out there for a while and did some deeper dives over a feature but far shallower than the sea mount though. Erin any cetacean info from that spot?
Anyway. Thought I would share. Waiting for another call from the tag to hopefully download the rest of his mostly unprecedented monk seal foray.
Cheers,
Charles
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3 comments:
Wow, what amazingly far travels for a Fat Kermit! What is he looking for? Why so many miles away from HOME? Is this what all seals do??? He looked great out at Campbells that day, a little weight loss, but still very strong, very handsome. We were wondering, could the RIM PAC have any thing to do with his far away travels?? I mean, it affects dolphins, they strand, it affects whales, could it affect SEALS TOO? Just a thought. Realy incredible information huh? I save every single map for my Journal, thanks Doc. Thanks KERMIT, you are awesome and loved. We'll be looking out for ya, STAY HOME ALREADY, we miss you.
Fascinating! I can't help but wonder where Kermit was able to rest out there. Are there little atols out there were he could sleep?
Hey All-
Nope, there isn't anywhere to haul out, but that doesn't mean he isn't sleeping. It is thought elephant seals when they are far out to sea dive down to a depth that will minimize their predation risk and will sleep there. Monk seals we know will sleep in little pukas in reefs underwater and barely wake up when they surface then dive back to the hole. While at sea, Kermit may have been sleeping during dives or at the surface, but likely for only short bursts. I haven't looked at dive durations yet, but there might be a few very extended ones that would indicate sleeping. Regardless, he certainly had a good long (couple of days) rest on the beach when he returned.
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