June 5, 2023 Monday's Dailies

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

Marilyn viewed Rabbit Island from 1:05 to 2:55 and only the two weaners were present today.

Out on the rock flats of LPB was weaner RS12: weaner size, shape and coloration, two red tags and a light female belly.

Initially on LPB was weaner RS34: weaner size, shape and coloration, two red tags, light female belly and silver dollar size NB on her lower right side. She entered the water and hauled out again four times while Marilyn was there. Finally ending up about 50 feet of the 1BS.

She tried to haul out down from the 1BS but the berm was too high for the chubby weaner to climb over so she gave up.

Team R&B had a short seal day today. Their first stop at the bay they found just one seal, laying out on rocks. It was R3CX Nalu and he was alone just snoozing. There were a few folks that came by for photos but no rock throwing today.

Team R&B were treated to some dolphins passing by.

The only other seal seen during their day was at another west side location. There was RG32 basking in the sun. He was alone and took a poop while he resting. When you got to go you got to go.

He left went around the rocks went back to the seal inlet looking around. Must have been a good spot because he hauled out.

Rabbit Island Weaners

R3CX Nalu

dolphin

RG32

June 4, 2023 Sunday's Dailies

Todays dailies are brought to you by Marilyn and Team R&B💕.  PLEASE check out part 2, in that its an update from our posse Lesley. She been busy at work at Ka'ena so its not always easy to update us here on the blog.

Marilyn viewed Rabbit Island from 12:30 to 2:30 and there were three seals on island.

Hauling out together on the rock flats of LPB were the two weaners. At 1:50, the weaner RS12 (PO4) started moving towards LPB. At 2:06 RS34 entered the water. At 2:25, RS12 entered the water. At 2:25, one of the weaners hauled out again about 40 feet of the 1BS. Marilyn wasn't sure which weaner.

At 1:22, Marilyn found RK38 Hali'a (Sadie's 2018 kid & RS12's big sister). She was hauled out on the rocks flats near SRI. She later moved up onto the beach, then rolled down near the water again, then went back up the beach. 

Team R&B spent hours at the bay today trying to id a seal. The first seal they spotted really made them work today. They finally realized it was RL20 Kalua, who just hauled out as they arrived. Then some dude who was a dad threw a rock at him. They yelled out for him to stop! He turned and looked like why?  They told him the seal is sleeping just resting. Soon after he and his family left.

They were having a conversation with Miss Holly when she heard seal snorts. They looked around and spotted two seals trying to haul up. One of them didn't seem familiar with the area.

Finally the Unknown Female hauled up first and went into the crevice of the rocks. She was hiding from RG28 Lefty, who was galumphing up next to her.

The U/F had no tags, dots on her head, a cc scar on right foreflipper area. Two line scares on her upper left butt area.

Lastly they came across a precious little male that looked really tired. They didn't see any tags, but he had a unique bleach mark on lower right area..  He had a cc scar under belly near foreflipper.  A line scar on his neck/chest area, and they think another cc scar on left front flipper. He looks to be about 2 years old, coat is minty green. It took them forever to tell it was a male, since he was wedged in the rocks.

Lastly they headed over to white plains and found a very big seal. It kept moving up and down due to the big surf. They were able to ID RN14 Kalani with his head wound

healing. (its not raw looking).  His bleach on the right side was visible as well.  As they got closer they could see his head was under the fence. They took the time to educate as many kids and adults they could talk to. Asking all to be respectful to the seal. Most were respectful. 

Team R&B called the hotline, who wanted to know how many people. They wanted photos of the SRA that the lifeguards had put up. Team R&B let them know there were over 200 folks on the beach. I don't know if they ever sent a volunteer to keep people back or to check out Kalani's predicament.

Rabbit Island

RL20 Kalua

RG28 Lefty

Unknown Female

RH76 Kala

RG28 Lefty

Lefty & Kala

Subadult Male - any guesses?????

RN14 Kalani

June 4, 2023 (part 2) A Report from Lesley

Its been a bit since we heard from Lesley on the blog, I know she's real busy and had an official reporting structure she goes through.  Having said that I'm thrilled she took the time to update us:

Aloha 

It has been a longtime since I have sent a report for the blog.

Thank you, dear readers, for the kind words and concern. I assure you, all is well.

The main reason I had to stop writing was the conflict with work. I still document the seals daily and send individual reports to NOAA. The amount of seals has increased on this side and I was spending to much time on the computer after work.

The past couple of weeks there's been from 10 up 16 seals a day.

I'm breaking my "rules" by sharing some news since the "cat is out of the hat", "beans have been spilt", "coconut wire is on fire" and the PUParazzis have landed...the truth shall be known.

On May 3^rd RL42 Leia gave birth to PO6 a lovely little female nicknamed "Kiele" (Gardenia) today D32

On May 6^th RN58 Luana gave birth to PO7 another lovely little female nicknamed "Maylea" (Wildflower) today D29

We have had many new documented seals on the rock as well as many visitors from outer islands. Some spent months with us, some hang around but go back to their rock to give birth, some swim around the island to visit other sites and come right back. Some are tagged so we know who they are and where they come from, many are not and we will never know where they came from.

These non-tagged seals need to be documented a couple of times before they get their permanent cohort. There's a lot of searching on the database to double check if they have been sighted previously, etc.

We were repeatedly told "we don't name monk seals", so that's why they have nicknames. Some seals even have different nicknames on different islands and even on the same island. The important information is that when they are documented it's by their official cohort.

Nicknames are given mostly for outreach purposes, usually Hawaiian names. A tradition kept around here is giving the nicknaming honor to the person that first sights the seal or sees the birth.

For example: 

-Birth locations: Nihoa, Ka'ena, Kaiwi, Molokai, Irma, Ewa Girl. Kaimana

-Tradition: When Nihoa gave birth for the first time I chose to nickname all her daughters and granddaughters with flower related names Leia, Luana, Napua, Kiele and Maylea. The males were to be ocean relate Ka'ale, Puna, Kalua, Kai, Puka and Mauna

-Named after people: Lina, Kami, Kawika, Kiane 

-Scars or body marks: Lefty, Akau, Right Spot, Rocky (because of her green eyes that looked like a racoon our DB kept signing Rocky Racoon song) 

-Some were personal work nicknames that just stuck: BanBanSquarePants, PVKauai (Permanent Visitor from Kauai was to long to write), Squinty, Momona

Many other inspirations along the years.

Some of the new and other seals are:

R416 (M) "Makalii" - Constellation of Pleiades because of one of the scars on his chest. He has just turned into a juvenile

R418 (F) "Kamea" - Precious one. Juvenile

R606 (M) "Akau" - The Right. Has NB on digit of RFF. Sub Adult

R617 (M) " Kimo" - The Family Torch Bearer also know as a Temp "420" first sighted on April 20th

R407 (M) "Kawika" - David. Was here most of last year, moved around went MIA and came back for sporadic visits. Has a scar on his eye

R604 (F) "Kiane" - Diane. Spent long periods here and added several CC scars while visiting us. Has a unique scar on the top of her head

RM36 (F) "Kalea" - Flower wreath. She has been around often and needed a nickname for outreach

RK42 (F) "Kaia" - Sea. Visitor from Kauai has been visiting our shores for the males delight. She might return home with a bun in the oven

RJ40 (F) " 'E'ena" - Shy, timid. spent long periods with us. This year got nice & round and went home to Molokai to give birth to her 1^st pup

RL74 (F) "Kami" - Tammy She is one of the Molokai weaners that showed up in Oct/Nov 2019. Recently did a trip to Kauai and came back fast

RL70 (F) "Leina" - Leina rock She is the other Molokai weaner that showed up in Oct/Nov 2019.

RL98 (F) "Lina" - Marilyn . She showed up in Oct/Nov 2019 with the Molokai girls but wasn't tagged, she looked was a little younger definitely a weaner that's why she has a "L" cohort.

RL08 (M) "BanBanSquarePants" - He was the weaner with the biggest girth measure. He has been here for a couple of weeks, is green as a Kermit and has several CCscars

RL47 (M) "Kamakana" - was a frequent flyer last year

RM31 (M) "Kai" - comes "home" to this side of the island frequently for a visit

RQ24 (M) "Mauna" - comes "home" to this side of the island frequently for a visit. He is a yearling and has already had several hooking incidents.

RN04 (M) "Kainoa" - Has been a frequent visitor the last couple of months and causes trouble when he shows up

RG28 (M) "Lefty" - Has been a nuisance when he shows up. Very possessive of other younger seals

R3CU (M) - no nickname despite years frequenting us he just goes by R3CU

R3CX (M) "Nalo" - has been another troublemaker

R303 (F) "BG" - Benny's Girl. She still gets nice and round, turns into a

KG54 (F) "Huaka'i" - trip, voyage, journey. She came from Kure, got hapai disappeared in Nov/Dec2022 then showed back up on Kauai in January very skinny and molted there. She may have pupped on Niihau

RG40 (M) "Holokai" - local boy, born at Turtle Bay but has chosen to hang out here.

RJ58 (F) "Kaimana" - did several pit stops around here

RH48 (F) "Lei Ola" - also did several pit stops here

RH76 (F) "Kala" - did some pit stops here

RN14 (M) "Molokai" - would come by often to check the girls

RP30 (M) "Puka" - hasn't been around here lately but come back to see his birth grounds

RH32 (M) "Ka'ale" - hasn't been around for a while, must have mist the births memo. I still believe we'll see him around soon

RW02 (M) "PVKauai" - he's here several times a week

RO40 (M) "Ka'ena" - seems to leave the island less. I see him several times a week. He no longer enjoys trouble around him. Sometimes he hangs around with OUR Molokai girls

R016 (F) "Right Spot" - she doesn't come frequen tly but shows up once or twice a year to say hi 

Over the years we lost some dear seals, some we watched from day one, some died some disappeared. None of those are mentioned above.

We have had our share and more of hookings. Ka'ena is the Houdini, has managed to get hooked so many times and most of them he manages to shake them off.

So yes I'm still "sealing" and keeping and eye on the fur kids as well as all the other wildlife and humans in the park.

My days are spent monitoring the park, doing as much outreach as possible and sharing our love for this place we call home.

I have to mention that I have a lot of help from SP volunteers, friends, neighbors, posses and fishermen it takes a village to do this. I couldn't without their help.

My phones only are quiet when turned off.

Note: Photoshoots and commercializing photos taken inside our State Parks without a permit is illegal. The same goes for commercial guided tours

Flippety Floppety Stinky hugs