1/25/2018 Monk Seal Dailies: News from NOAA Update on Right Spot

This is news that came from NOAA today. I actually heard through the windward coconut wire about something happening to a critter and suspected it had something to do with Right Spot given she has been in the area. I had no information just a feeling. Today's official announcement from NOAA confirms the my thoughts.

http://www.fpir.noaa.gov/stories/hawaiian_monk_seal_r016_update_01252018.html

On January 23, NOAA's monk seal emergency response team conducted a beachside health assessment for R016 (aka "Rightspot"), an adult female seal on O‘ahu. Over the weekend, Hawaii Marine Animal Response (HMAR) volunteers reported concerns that R016 was logging (floating listlessly), which can indicate health problems. When the team assessed her, R016 was robust, alert, and quite strong, but she had a substantial wound to her left armpit and one of the digits on that flipper. The wound appeared to be most likely from a shark bite and she was clearly in discomfort (logging and holding her left front flipper against her body). The NOAA team administered an injection of long-acting antibiotics and decided that allowing her to heal in the wild is the best approach at this time.