MonkSealMania.blogspot.com: Jan 13, 2019 Monk Seal Dailies

Sunday, January 13, 2019

Jan 13, 2019 Monk Seal Dailies

Todays dailies are brought to you by Team Billand and Marilyn.

On a top ten list this is by far one of those moments in time. Marilyn had great pleasure watching RK96 Kaiwi playing with her 2018 son RK24 at spitting cave between 10 and 11 am. After they left spitting cave she was able to find them again at Kokee Flats. Mom and son were busy tossing it about in the water. Kaiwi was ID'd by her natural bleach on forehead, natural bleach inside her rear flipper and K96/97 tags. RK24 ID'd by his size, light belly and K24 tag.

After enjoying Mother and Son antics, Marilyn went to the pier to view Rabbit Island from 12:45 to 1:50 pm. There were three critters all in separate locations on the Island. Unfortunately Marilyn wasn't able to get any ID, (Oh I know what that is like).
Unknown Juvenile Male - located about 20 feet right of the 1BS. Juvenile size, male belly and tags.
Unknown Male - located behind the waterfront rocks near the 3BS. This seal only showed her about 2/3 of its ventral side. She never saw the head or the front or rear flippers. The critter had a lighter belly, but Marilyn thinks it was adult size.

Unknown Unknown - located near the waterfront rocks about midway between the 3BS and SRI. The seal never showed its side so it was hard to estimate the size. It had a light older coat belly with some green. Marilyn was unable to determine gender and thinks there was 2 tags.

Team Billand was heading to the South West Quadrant when the got a call from a friend about a seal out at plains. They arrived at 6:30 am and found Rocky RH58 by one of the towers. There were signs up and Team Billand made some adjustments. While they were securing Rocky's area they noticed two more seals to the right of the shack. It was still dark at the time, but they called it into the Hotline.

Checking on the other two they found Benny RE74 and Buster RV08. They quickly made another zone, and just as they placed the last post all three seals decided it was time to go. They left all at once it was 7:15 am. Benny made a rather dramatic departure by vomiting yellow bile. After all the seals left, they called the hotline to update them, then places all the equipment back in the box and left the site.

After leaving the plains Team Billand headed westside and spotted two seals at one of the usual hot spots. Team Billand stayed for hours trying to make an ID of two seals off shore. They got lucky and saw Kolohe RW22 applied

bleach. The other seal could not be ID'd and reported as a UU. Neither seal landed, but on their last visit Kolohe had hauled out on lower rock and he was alone.

At another west side beach they found RW02 PvKauai sleeping alone. He was near a beach park with a lot of homeless. Team Billand called the hotline, but did not stay in that they didn't want to draw any attention to him.

Kaiwi and RK24