MonkSealMania.blogspot.com: 12-12-2013 Yesterday's News: Lesley's Ka'ena Point Trek

Thursday, December 12, 2013

12-12-2013 Yesterday's News: Lesley's Ka'ena Point Trek

Kimo L & I did KPt monitoring today - we left early and came back very late with big smiles on our faces.

At Hidden Beach we found R912 "Nihoa" sleeping mid beach near the water line. Checking around we saw some trails going up to a location where we have seen little RN58 "Luana" hauled out.

We were then joined by François & Pascaline, a couple of French Fire Fighters taking a sabbatical year and travelling around the world. There was a lot of talk story and sharing experiences between finding and IDing seals.

At the point we found RR70 "Rip" - finally totally molted sleeping mid beach.
The tide was very low when we arrived, RO40 "Ka'ena" was on some pebbles in very shallow water, he has a new CC wound on his neck.

In the mid pool reefs there was a tagged seal laying sideways against a rock. It took a very long time for it to move and finally let me see his sex... then on a butterfly move of his hind flippers out of the water some tag shots. It was RW02.

We headed back to the gate via the reefs and Pascaline asked me if what she was pointing at was a seal. And so it was !! R303 "BG" in a beautiful new coat rolling with tide waves in her pool.

On our way back we spotted a little sand color seal on Hidden Beach: RN58 "Luana". She was hauled out where we had seen the trails in the morning. She was still moving around so we were able to get the "cuttie" shots.

R912 "Nihoa" was still sleeping mid beach - it didn't seem that there had been any interaction of mom and daughter.

I got a msg for the seals on North Shore (TBR & Mothers Beach / Sunset), but it was 5:00PM when I got ready to leave KPt so to late to cross North Shore to respond.

On our way out from the point we met up with Lindsay Young - Pacific Rim Conservation. The have counted ~64 Albatross eggs / ~100 Albatross are in the area .

R303 BG