12-31-11 Lesley's Trek to Ka'ena Point

Aloha,
The hike chosen for the last day of the year was Kaena Pt via the West side.
I went with the Pauly family and some friends - most of them first timers out there.We started off from Yokohama at around 10am. Half way thru the hike I saw a HMS in the water and called the others to look at it. Not only it was a seal but it also had a radio on it's back !!

After observing it for a while I got concerned with it's behavior. It was logging sideways not moving the flippers at all. I called the hotline, spoke to Nicole (in Maui) giving her a complete description of the situation & location (GPS). Then while we were talking I saw the seals head move up take a breath and go back in the water continuing logging. She told she had seen that behavior before it could be sleeping ?

My friends were looking with binoculars, taking pics and saw the seal swimming.

I checked back in with Charles and Nicole.

We went on, and as we were going thru the gate, I saw the seal again swimming in KP direction .

At the point we found another seal on the rocks but impossible to see whom it was for sure (F or M), no tags, lots of little scars. I couldn't see the left side of the head to see if it was 761. So U/U for that one.

We also saw several whales blowing and breaching, albatrosses nesting, spinning dolphins... what a "perfect" day !

I'd like to send a big thank you to Nicole (in Maui) and Charles L for helping me out.

Happy New year to all !!

Aloha,

Lesley

Kekoa! heading for Ka'ena Point.... ? .... we shall see

 U/U Unidentified/Unknown