MonkSealMania.blogspot.com: 10-15-11 DB Daily on Seal Count Day

Saturday, October 15, 2011

10-15-11 DB Daily on Seal Count Day

At 0600 we arrived at AD and began the Kaiwi Quest. At 0607 we found her snoozin' at her grassy patch, 300 yds east of the AD wall. She would snooze through Stacy's shift, only moving down to the water front rocks at 1010. For Alice's shift she would enter the water, and cruise in the near shore waters, occasionally venturing further out, but always remaining the the start location. Alice reported her hauling out to the water front rocks at 1245. Alice reported Kaiwi doing dives a few minutes, and saw her with a more than a mouthful fish, which is dropped.

Patrick & Zeenat reported that she began swimming toward the west at 1700. When we arrived at 1830 she was in shallows a couple of hundred feet from the AD wall.

At 0705 I found Kolohe (RW22) up in the Morning Glory, 40 ft left of 1BS on Rabbit Island. On my 2nd RI look at 0900 I found that Nani (RK60) had joined him.

At 1204 to my complete surprise, Duke (RA12) came galumphing into view from behind the Morning Glory covered dunes, left of 1BS. He had no doubt been there all along, but completely hidden from me. He would move down to join Nani and Kolohe, and all would remain there the rest of the day.

As you all know, today was Seal Count Day. Afternoon email from Dana , with all Zones reporting in, brought news of 17 Oahu critters seen. There will no doubt be more supporting information, but the basics are : Zone #20 (Ka'ena Point/Westside =7 (they win the turkey !!!). Zone#12= 4 (that is RI and AD), Zone#4 (Turtle Bay)= 2, Zone#1 (Mokuleia side) =3, Zone#19 (Makaha)=1. When I know....you'll know, the IDs. Multiple emails and many shots arrived from Vera & Glen Cober who did the KP trek today. They originally thought they had 7 animals but it turned out to be 6. They found Pohaku (R028), Ka'ena (RO40), Kermit (R4DG), a molting Noa (R6FI), 761, and an U/U, with a new coat.