Aloha good people.... many of you remember the old seal named Chester (had a very large scar across his chest) ... he was around on Oahu for a few years and died in 2008. Some of you may remember when he became Chester the Celebrity Seal who got a lot of media exposure during his visit to Kailua Beach from New Years Day 2008 and stayed for entire 26 days....
Chester was near and dear to me.... he is the reason I got involved with monk seals.... I started this blog because after he left Kailua Beach I needed something "sealy" to do everyday.... he was the first monk seal I had ever seen and I am thankful not the last..... he brought me an ever lasting friendship with Aunty Sharon, and DB.... He opened the door for me to get to know and assist all the folks over in NOAA ..... soooo when I got this email today from Tracey you can imagine how touched I was.... What a wonderful gift to get know him a little more even though he's gone... thank you Tracey. (although I am still waiting for the dna results to find his offspring) At the very least monk seal fans, I hope you can appreciate how cool this information is.... ......................... black and white photos from the late 1980's and early 1990's. I found Chester! It turns out that Chester was one of the Laysan males that was translocated to the MHI in 1994. His original Laysan ID was TK23. He was born on Laysan island in 1985! He was translocated to Maui in the MHI in 1994 and not resighted after that year, at least not as TK23. The seal we all came to know as Chester was first identified on Kauai in 2001. He later came to Oahu in 2004. He was 23 years old when he died.
He's only 2 years old here... amazing
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2 comments:
That is so incredible that Tracey was able to do this tracking. It just verifies that all those photos are for a VERY good reason.
Mahalo for sharing.
I been away, missed commenting on the blog. When I read about Chesters history...I found it thrilling, interesting and it touched my heart to hear about his life. The photo...awe, so cute and healthy. It brought tears to me..I thank Tracy for finding this information,makes him even more special. Wow from Layson???? And I had no idea he was that old..WOW!! We had wanted to meet the seal that was hanging out at Kailua Beach back then. But every single time we were on our way...we got a call of a seal in our district and had to go back. Then One day, we had gone on our regular hunt, saw these people hanging out at Nimitz Pavilion area, staring down. We knew that was a signal, SEAL!!! We ran over, got the folks away, called DB, discribing the seals markers. DB knew we had been trying to MEET Chester! Then he said, BARBARA..you have just met....CHESTER!!! OH MY GOD!!! We had the famous SEAL in our back yard and didnt even know it. I stood there crying...Rob looked down and found this huge shell near the spot..till this very day, I gaze at that shell and go back to our first meeting of Chester...Such a WONDERFUL INCOUNTER, with a seal we had been trying to meet!! He had unique markings and natural bleaches. We sooooo appeciate your researching this SPECIAL SEAL...CHESTER. He died one day after my BIRTHDAY...I'll never forget him, NEVER.
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