December 20, 2024 Friday's Dailies

Todays dailies are brought to you by Diane and Team R&B💕

Diane monitored Rabbit Island with Marilyn from 12:35 to 2:00 pm and there were five seals seen during that time.

Initially there were four seals when they arrived. Three of them were hauled out near each other to the left of the 2BS:

Adult Female: clean coat, no tags seen. Juvenile Female: clean coat and 2 red tags. The two females were side by side and they were in the company of an Adult Male, which Marilyn ID'd as R407 Kawika.

Another Adult Male hauled out near the 3BS and he appears to be the same A/M as yesterday.

At 1:15 pm another seal hauled out to the right of the 1BS: Unknown Juvenile: clean coat, two red tags, but it was hard to determine sex and size.

Team R&B first stop was at pokai. They spent over an hour gazing at the ocean. There were no seals, no dolphins, no turtles and with good reason.  Team R&B had noticed movement just off the Heiau and thought it was a seal, but it was a shark. In fact there were three of them going after something.  Team R&B got a couple of shots of the fins, but they moved fast and then were gone.

Team R&B headed over to tracks where they eventually found R604. It took them a little bit to find her in that she was way up in the grassy area, probably because of the big surf.

There were some folks that stopped to visit but all in all they were good. One surfer who wasn't paying attention had a scare when he came across her. 

Team R&B did a recheck on her later in the day and she was still there at the site. She had moved down a bit but was still resting peacefully.

They checked out Kahe where they spotted a seal foraging. They don't have much to go on, other than the seal was small and was foraging briefly by the outfall.

They also spotted a plover trying to get a meal.

Their only other sighting was Adam from NOAA posting some signs for the dolphins.

Rabbit Island

Shark

R604

Unknown Juvenile? Sub-adult?

plover

NOAA 

November 19, 2024 Tuesday's Dailies

Todays dailies are brought to you by Marilyn and Team R&B💕

Marilyn viewed Rabbit Island from 3:02 to 4:03 om and there was only one seal seen during that time.

Between 3BS and SRI was an Adult Female: adult size, at least one red tag and mottled gray female belly.

Earlier in the morning Marilyn was out and once again spotted weaner RT62 Ka'iwa. She was hauled out when Marilyn arrived, then she

moved up into the leaves and went into snooze mode. She was ID'd by her small weaner size, applied N22 bleach, T62/63 tags and tannish brown female belly.

Team R&B arrived at rest camp and spotted R3CX Nalu and RH48 Lei Ola further out. Both stayed away from the other two seals as well as a couple of sharks in the area.

Team R&B noted that when the sharks are in the seals go further out and so do the dolphins. 

They tried to get photos of the sharks passing by while the seals were further out.

Also out there today were RL20 Kalua and RM31 Kai. The two of them put on a show for all to see. They noted that RL20 seems to chase RM31 all the time.  At first they spotted them hugging and then it turned into a chase and fight, splashing all over the place.

Team R&B had checked several other areas and didn't see any other seals until late in the afternoon. They spotted a seal from afar at tracks. It appears to be a male, new coat, they thought it might be RH32 Kaale. They didn't go to the site to get a closer look mostly because of traffic at that time of day.

Rabbit Island

RT62

shark passing by

RH48

R3CX

RL20 & RM31

RL20 

dolphins

unknown male

November 15, 2024 Friday's Dailies

Todays dailies are brought to you by Marilyn, Tammy and Team R&B💕

Marilyn viewed Rabbit Island from 10:54 am to 1:17 pm and there were ultimately five seals seen during that time. When Marilyn arrived there were only three seals on island.

Down from 3BS was a seal that Marilyn believes RK24 Bruno: adult size, newer coat, male belly and two red tags.

Shortly after she started viewing she found weaner RT19 up from SRI: weaner size, golden male belly, two red tags. He moved up and down the beach.

At 11:09 am, a seal hauled out about 50 feet Makapuu of the 1BS. This turned out to be RP24 Mohala: sub-adult size, light tan female belly, two red tags and nb on the tip of her LFF.

At 12:26 pm a seal hauled out and moved up toward the 1BS. Marilyn believes this is the molting Adult Male that she has been reporting:

adult size, medium gray male belly, at least one red tag and about 95% molted. He appears to have only a small amount of fur on his rear dorsal area. RP24 and the AM moved closer to each other.

Then at 12:49 pm a seal hauled out on LPB and moved toward the AM. This seal is labeled as an Unknown Juvenile: large juvenile size, newer coat, two red tags. Marilyn never saw its ventral side. The UJ went immediately into snooze mode.

Tammy went to visit with BG 303 & PO12. The pup is 32 days old

and is looking nice and plump. BG has been moving the kid around a lot. They have been up and down the coastline.

Team R&B saw lots of splashing when they checked out the rest-camp area. Then they saw a fin coming up fast, swirling around, and then it was over. They captured a couple of pics of a shark. Then they saw another shark with a darker fin, seems what ever it was eating was keeping it busy.

This area was the place to be. There was lots of action in the water besides the sharks. Multiple seals were out there foraging. Team R&B actually saw fish jumping out of the water. 

The first two seals to be ID'd were R3CX Nalu and RM31 Kai.  Then there was RL20 who was very vocal today. He was busy chasing his brother RM311 Kai. The two of them spent time playing as well as foraging.  They also spotted Miss Lei Ola RH48 out there foraging. She was also busy keeping her distance from the boys.

Next stop they spotted a seal from afar at tracks. There were not able to get an ID.  They got distracted by a seal on the rocks with a big hook. They did ID this seal as RG28 Lefty, so they called the hotline immediately. They informed them where the seal was located and then said they knew of the hooked seal. Shame they don't let other folks know to keep their eyes open for the seal. Oh well! 

Team R&B noted the hook was visible but not the barb. They saw a trailing line but couldn't tell how long the line was. Lefty was resting in a pond.  Hopefully a team can get out to him or he tosses it on his own.

Lefty had company, as another seal with a clean coat was nearby. This handsome critter was ID'd as R617 newly molted with no tags.

Lastly they spotted a seal at cliffs. The seal did not move and they were unable to make a positive ID. They know it was a male with two red tags, so it was reported as an Unknown Male.  They think it could be RP30 since he does hang around the area, but they just weren't sure.

 

Rabbit Island

R303 and PO12

shark

RM31

R3CX

RL20 and brother RM31

RL20

RH48

U/U

RG28

R617

R617 and RG28

Unknown Male