02/28/2021 Sunday (part 2) Marilyn's Rabbit Island Update

In Marilyn's own words:

I viewed Rabbit Island from Makai Pier today from about 1:20 to 3:25 pm.  There were four seals when I first started viewing. Later two other seals showed up.  I'll number the seals #1 - #4 for those that were there from the beginning and will number the seals that showed up later #5 and #6.

On Left Point Beach about 60 feet Lanikai side of 1BS was Seal 1 - UJF: unknown juvenile to subadult female, yellowish female belly, possibly with 2 parallel line scars about mid-ventral, 2 tags.  Originally she was alone.

About 30 feet Lanikai side of 3BS was Seal 2 and UJ1- Unknown Juvenile 1 - probably a 2020 pup, no tags, not sure of sex because whenever I saw its belly it was covered with sand. 

On rockflats behind SRI was Seal 3 -  UJ2 - Unknown Juvenile 2 - probably a 2020 pup, no tags, a light probably female belly. This seal moved down behind waterfront rocks for awhile and then headed up the beach and ended up going far into the vegetation and out of sight.

On the rockflats to the Makapuu side of RRB was Seal 4 - Unknown Adult - adult size, at least one tag;

I never saw the belly so I have no idea of its sex.

At 1:54 pm, I noticed Seal 5 hauled out to Seal 2.  Seal 5 is an adult male with two tags.  Seal 2 and 5 interacted on and off until Seal 5 entered the water at 2:18 pm.

At 2:07, I noticed that Seal 6 hauled out near Seal 1. Seal 6 appeared to be a subadult female. Initially she started up into the vegetation, but then came back down to Seal 1.  In one photo, I think I see RK37's nb on her lower left side.

Then at 2:26 pm, Seal 5 joined Seal 1 and Seal 6.  If you are confused so am I.

02/28/2021 Sunday Monk Seal Dailies

Todays dailies are brought to you by Team T&D, Team R&B, Melody and Marilyn.  Marilyn's Rabbit Island update is part two of the dailies.

Team T&D sent news from their Saturday sightings. They saw 10 seals, a long hot hike on soft sand and climbing over rocky areas was WELL WORTH IT! One of the sightings was RK74 and they just saw the day before at La'au. A very cool experience was seeing both R1KT and RG22 and having seen them before on Oahu.

Team R&B began their morning with Kaale RH32 foraging in the

outfall for a good chunk of time. At one point he had a stick fish and was ripping and tossing it about. Very cool to watch! After three hours of foraging and watching over him, Kaale left the site and headed towards tracks. They followed him and of course he arrived right in front of the fishermen (again). They called the hotline and were told there was a team on site. Thats when they spotted the volunteers. They eventually put up signs and ropes.

Team R&B headed to KoOlina and got to watch over R1KM on shore at Lagoon 2. There was a zone set up for her and Team R&B just missed the volunteer. There were some tourist standing by, when one of the guys walk up to the front of the seal and splash water to make the seal move and the other folks took photos.  

Team R&B couldn't help themselves and yelled out Sir, Please don't do that! The guy stopped and walked over to ask questions. They answered his questions and made sure he understood the Hawaiian monk seals are protected by both State and Federal Laws.   Once Team R&B finished talking with him they could focus on R1KM, she is looking nice and plump. Her natural bleach was showing on the left side making it easy to ID. She has three cookie scars on her chest area, scar on her right for flipper, and her bright red tags.

At another west side location they found five seals on the rocks. It was extremely windy making standing still a challenge.  RW02 PvKauai was in the shallows playing hippo. R3CX Nalu was with Kala RH76 to the right of the rocks. R3CU was at mid rocks resting and Kekoa RK72 wasn't too far away.

Team R&B went and did a recheck at tracks. They found a second seal RN14 Kalani with his bosom

buddy Ka'ale RH32 on shore. The fishermen were all still there and more people out and about in the water with their boogie boards. The volunteers were gone, and ropes were down. There were a couple of signs there and the tide was rising fast, even the seals were moving up higher.

Melody got a text that a seal hauled out at Iroquois and she thought of Rocky. Melody made the ride since she hadn't seen her in a while. When she arrived there was a family way too close.  Melody was able to ID Rocky RH58 by her natural bleach on left fore flipper. Melody did her best to educate the family and since the beach was really crowded she called it into the hotline. Gratefully a volunteer responded even though it was late in the afternoon.  Good to hear our old gal Rocky is back in the neighborhood. 

R1KT 

RG22

RK78

RK94

RK98 and  R7AW

RKB0

RN21

RT22

RH32  Kaale

Kaale at tracks

R1KM

RH76 Kala

Kala RH76 and R3CX Nalu

R3CU 

Kekoa RK72

RW02 PvKauai

Kalani RN14 and Kaale RH32

Rocky RH58

02/27/2021 Saturday Monk Seal Dailies

Today's dailies are brought to you by Team R&B, Team T&D and Lesley. Lesley's Ka'ena update is part 3 of the dailies and Team T&D' update from Molokai is part two of the dailies.

Team R&B saw Kaale RH32 foraging this morning at the outfall. He was moving at a slow pace and then he took off. That was their cue to leave. From a distance they could see that Kaale had hauled out at tracks right in front of all the fishermen. (not a good combination since he is a fish thief). They called the hotline. Seems tracks is a populated beach with people, fishermen, surfers, it would seem there should be there watching over the seals on a scheduled basis. 

Next stop for Team R&B was to another west side location. They initially saw one seal, RW02 PvKauai

was near the play boy pond. Then they found Kala RH76 looking good, and there was Lefty RG28 alone at the inlet.  The rains came so they ducked down to stay dry. When it stopped they saw two more seals had arrived.  Kekoa RK72 decided to join Lefty and R3CU was on lower rocks.

Team R&B went back to check on Kaale at tracks and now there were two. They hurried over and the fishermen were still there and the seals were on shore. There was Ka'ale RH32 and R407 Kawika had joined him. Volunteers were on site with signs!

Kaale at outfall

Kaale hauled out 

RW02 PvKauai

Kala RH76

RG28 Lefty

Kekoa RK72

Kekoa and Lefty

R3CU

Kawika R407

Kaale and Kawika