For those who have been following the blog you know what this is about..... and for those who are new to the blog well this is a story about a lady who bumped into this critter on a beach in Kailua.... His name was Chester..... and that is where my love for monk seals began.... January 1st 2008. Thank you Chester.... you changed my life forever!
(and the new year on the blog always begins with Chester)
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2 comments:
Yay, Chester!
Yay, Blog Lady!
I tell you this, when we heard of the GREAT SWEET CHESTER, Rob and I wanted so much to meet that male. He became such a star out there in Kailua, we would watch the news and there was chester, sleeping on shore with humans who cared for his safety.
We heard of the community coming together, PROTECTING CHESTER.
Every time we were headed to Kailua, we got called out back to leeward for a haul out. Once we were in the area of Kailua, trying to find the FAMOUS SEAL. But the phone rang, AND WE HAD TO LEAVE KAILUA..DAM. We were so close to meeting him.
Well one day, got a call of a haul out at Iroquios Pt. We drove out there figuring it was Rocky...but guess what..IT WAS CHESTER@!!!!! We met up with Tracy too who explained about Chester to us..OH MY GOSH...He was thin, but he had neat NATURAL BLEACH spots on him, AND WE FINALLY MET : CHESTER!!!
On another day, we got called for a seal at Nimitz. We got there, there were so many people around this thin male, who we didnt know who it was. After much observation the male turned and we saw his markers..CHESTER!!!!! He is here in our area, WOW, we felt so honored. Rob happened to look down, found this huge shell, gave it to me for a TREASURE, to document our meeting of CHESTER. I called DB discribed the animal to him..YEP, that certainly is Chester. YAHOO...we educated folks about him, what LITTLE we knew of him, spent many hours with him that day.
We met once more at Nimitz and that would be our last time seeing him, that sweet skinny male..
One day, on March 26th, DB called us and said he had Chester on R.I. But he thinks something was wrong. He called us again to say, he thinks CHESTER was : DEAD. Oh my god, my heart sank, the tears flowed. NO...Please..I couldnt think.
Chester died on Rabbit Island with DB...NOAA was notified and they came for his Carcass for necropsy. All I can remember, was we finally met CHESTER and he dies..but we fell in love with him, the same with everyone else. Including our beloved BLOG LADY..MISS DONNA.
I have the photos of Chester, not very good, but I will never forget that FAMOUS MOLTING SEAL that touched Kailua and its Community. He sure brought us awareness of our Hawaiian Monk Seals. And I still have that pretty shell Rob found for me while with Chester....I pick it up now and then and REMEMBER that skinny male.
I also remember how we joked HOW MANY PUPS he made for us ...there were lots of seals with BLEACH SPOTS..just like him.
I believe they called him CHESTER as he had a big scar on his chest, RIGHT DB?
So thanks Donna for your photo of Chester...it certainly brought back alot of fond memories. Hey look at that yellow tape..HE HE.
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