MonkSealMania.blogspot.com: December 30, 2019 Monk Seal Dailies

Tuesday, December 31, 2019

December 30, 2019 Monk Seal Dailies

Today's dailies are brought to you by Team Billand, Melody and me.

I made a quick stop in Waimanalo this afternoon on my way home from Honolulu. I set up the scope and there was only one critter on island. I was hoping in the hour and a half I was there I would see more, but there was only one, which is better than none.

I believe this critter to be a female, juvenile size. She was laying on her right side when I arrived in front of the 3BS. She eventually rolled onto her belly when I could see the orange on her hind flippers indicating she had tags.

Melody sent email that yesterday she and Dana alone with Tony, Stephanie and Diana went up to the north shore to look for seals, but to also spread some positive energy out on the beaches. With all the hardship, spreading some good seal karma, cleansing with some sage, sprinkle of holy water can only help. They got to see some nesting Albatross, and they even got a visit with Sadie on their way home.

This morning Melody was out photographing the sunrise, when security found her to let her know of a seal at the other end of the beach. When Melody got there she knew it was Rocky by her NB on her LFF. She was by the morning glory and security had already put signs up. Melody reported to the hotline and then set herself up for what turned out to be most of the day. There were some visitors who came by and Melody was joined by Diana of HMSPO. Finally after rolling her way down to the water Rocky headed out to get herself some food. Melody included a video so please enjoy the show.

Team Billand had another busy day. When they first headed out this morning they didn't see any seals, just large surf. Then they heard a snort. It was Kekoa Alii RK72 trying to haul in with the waves pushing him about. He managed to on lower rocks, but the waves kept pushing. Then there was another snort from a different direction.
There was RW02 PvKauai behind the rock, they never saw him come in, in fact he may have been there all along. Both seals kept checking each other out. Then Kekoa got blasted by a way and was washed out. They spotted him foraging off shore.

RW02 got tossed about five minutes after Kekoa, he left and they were both seen off shore. While watching the boys Team Billand could see there were multiple seal out there. They left at 10:30 to answer a call from Paradise Cove.

Team Billand arrived at the site at 10:40 and were shocked to see how many people were out there on the shore. There was Kolohe RW22 with just some signs around him. Team Billand heard from Auntie explained that some good folks knew where the signs were and put them up, there were no ropes. A volunteer was there educating people, but it's hard with that many people. So many people going back and forth with their little children, boogie boards, tourists etc. Volunteer Melina arrived and immediately made the zone larger. Team Billand left knowing Kolohe was in good hands with Melina.

Team Billand returned back to see if any of the foraging critters had landed. When they returned to the west side site they found RIP RR70 on a small sand patch, Kekoa and RW02 were next to each other on lower rocks, and RH36 Kawena was with R3CX. Team Billand initially through this seal was R3CU, but viewing the tag shot they realized it was not. Team Billand immediately contacted the monk seal grapevine and found out this is a NEW seal to Oahu, seen other day. Turns out R3CX is five years old (2014) and was tagged on March 2015 on Kauai.

Rabbit Island J/F