Sunday, December 9, 2018

12/9/2018 Monk Seal Dailies: Lesley's Ka'ena Update Saturday 12/8/2018

A fantastic seven seals day!  We went out in pouring rain, it was VERY windy and cold, but we were determined to do our Saturday monitoring.

RW02 “PV Kauai” was the first seal right in front of our CE beach access.

Next seal we spotted was when we were coming down the dunes at Main Beach. RN30 (M) was in the shallow waters of the Main Pool.
On Back Beach RO40 “Ka’ena” was sleeping in his favorite spot under Naupaka branches on Back Beach.

While we were confirming RN30 ID we saw a head bopping up and down at the entrance of the Main Pool. It was R3CU (M).
He swam towards RN30 they “acknowledged” each other. They followed each other around the pool with little interaction, but every now and then some splashing went on.
We had our cameras on them to get those tag shots, although by their scars we had already IDed them. 
I had a couple hundred photos to go thru…

While we were concentrating on the 2 boys, we heard a snort to our left side coming from the little side beach. We scrambled to move, and I heard “WOW there are 2 seals”.
What a surprise R353 (F) and RL42 “Leia” hauled out there to the delight of several hikers and visitors.

In minutes we had 5 seals and a lot of outreach to do. The weather helped us out, more rain on it’s way and less people were showing up.
We had started to dry up because of the wind but soon got all wet again.

On our way back we found RK88 “Puna” freshly hauling out and settling up beside a rock to sleep/rest @ 10Mnts Beach.
 Hiking home I checked again on RW02 “PV Kauai” and he was still there.  More tomorrow  


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