Thursday, May 17, 2018

5/17/2018 Monk Seal Dailies:

Today's dailies are brought to you by Team Billand, photographer Melody, and a brief update from Marilyn.

An email from Marilyn informs us that NOAA team headed to Rabbit Island today and was able to ID PO6s Mom as Sadie RB12.  She shows up every year like clockwork and gives birth on Rabbit Island.  
Pup PO1 is officially tagged as RK38 (RK38/K39) Hali'a is a fat feisty female. They had to wait on her quite awhile to get into a good spot. Hali'a also got a N4 bleach on her right side.
Team NOAA also found RG32 and he got a N32 bleach on both sides. RG32 is a young male born in 2015 on Molokai. 
Marilyn checked on Kaiwi RK96 and PO3 this morning and again this afternoon. She did not have any photos to share but did say the pup is getting bigger and beginning to show a reddish tint on his coat.

Team Billand did not have the best of days today in terms of finding critters. They searched from the wee hours of the morning and only spotted one critter, they were unable to ID. They spotted one seal while at the Outfall, it was moving swiftly towards the west. 
They stayed at the Outfall talking to fishermen, who mentioned the seas was just there but took off.

Team Billand left and stopped off at a Leeward Beach and saw one seal. They ID'd Kekoa Alii RK72 snoozing the day away. He spent the day there alone. Team Billand made multiple stops and checked on RK72 and the only difference was his getting washed over by the rising tide.

Team Billand did the Ka'ena West trek and found no critters. ** In spite of the lack of seals, Team Billand did experience a pod of dolphins! Very cool!


Melody went to visit Kaiwi and PO3 this afternoon, they were on the beach when she first got there. But soon after they went into the water for over an hour of seal survival training, some playtime and an attempt at nursing the surf. Finally they hauled out on the shore and it was good to get a good view of them Thank you Melody for the pictures and video.


Pod of dolphins 
 Kekoa RK72 
Kaiwi and PO3
Video

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