Wednesday, October 16, 2013

10-16-2013 Lesley's Adventurous Day

Haupu at Waialua 
 RL42 at back beach Ka'ena Point
 Luana at Mokuleia not sure why these photos came out blurry... I know the ones Lesley forwarded to me were in focus... hmmm must be the gremlins at work.
 Ka'ena at Kaena Point
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Lesley said...

I met Tia @ Crozier Rd in Waialua @ 6:45AM. Thank you to Trish Coder for offering your house as beach access. Trish volunteered when RK28 “KC - Kaaawa Critter” had RW22 “Kolohe” on Mokuleia in 2008
I IDed RB24 “Hauupu” by her tags, she has been around the area for several days and definitely overnighted, she’s in a pre-molting behavior. She has some little spots on her chest that could be the start of her molt. She also has some mating superficial scratches on her hind back sides. I checked on her again in the afternoon, she had turned down towards the water, probably just to cool off cause she gallumped back up and snuggled back to sleep. A lot of outreach was done with the neighbors, I taught them how to ID her from far and take pictures to report her to the hotline (or any other seal). It’s a very narrow stretch of beach.
On arrival @ bb Mokuleia, RN58 “Luana” was nowhere to be found. The wall that has been built around what was her latest favorite haul out has grown since last reports. There was no traces of her hauling back in there for days. With big waves and higher tides it seems she won’t use that location anymore, since there’s no more access to the bushes and safer dry grounds. We combed the area and coasted all the way to KPt looking for her. I finally found her hauling out on bb Mokuleia a little past noon; she was gallumping up the beach trying to reach a higher spot to rest.
Out @ KPt we found RO40 “Ka’ena” logging in his pool totally undisturbed. Out at the point there were several seal traces on both beaches: Main and Back beach. Some of the seals usual back accesses from one beach to another were blocked by sticks, probably put there for human purposes but end up being a seal barrier also. We did outreach explaining to visitors the reason we were taking down those sticks and did a Q&A session. Especially now when some of the KPt seals are getting ready to molt, for years we have seen them gallump very high up the beach and around the main rock. During winter swells the water comes all the way to the big rock formation on main beach.
RL42 was rolling near the waterline on Back Beach preparing herself to enter. She’s showing off a beautiful new coat. There was a group of ~12 Asian visitors taking photos and filming on Back Beach, you wouldn’t believe they were there by the silence and respect. I had explained that walking on the coral rocks is noisy and could disturb the seal, so some kept to the sand and some joined me on the rocks at the top of the North side wall. Mahalo for your kokua.
Aloha, L.

October 17, 2013 at 7:26 AM

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