MonkSealMania.blogspot.com: 7/10/2017 Monk Seal Dailies: Lei Ola, RL42, Ka'ale, Kawena, Aka, Right Spot

Monday, July 10, 2017

7/10/2017 Monk Seal Dailies: Lei Ola, RL42, Ka'ale, Kawena, Aka, Right Spot

Today's seals sighting come from Team Billand, Gayle, Mrs. Whisperer and NOAA HMSRP. Our little PO2 "Aka" got his bling today!

Lei Ola RH48 & RL42 at 20 min mark

Early in morning, found RL42 just Ten feet apart from Lei Ola at the 20.
L42 might be going into a molt soon, she is so grubby looking...and has been at this location few days now. HMM.
RH48 Lei Ola has a mark on her left upper shoulder, could be just a WET MARK, not sure. Nothing serious any ways. Just noted that different. Both girls are resting comfortably on the rocks. No one around ..... YET.

Ka'ale RH32 at Kahe

He wasnt there earlier, we had checked two times before. On our last check in afternoon, he was on the edge of the rocks, getting hit by the rising tide.

Gayle reported Right Spot R016 at Kaupo and a few shots of activity at Rabbit Island. (thank you Gayle). We also have the following report from Mrs. Whisperer from her day at the Pier and a couple shots from the eastside.

I arrived at the Makai Pier about 7:30 to watch the NOAA team tag Aka. When I first viewed Rabbit Island I saw no seals. When I looked over at Kaupo Beach Park at 0820, I saw a seal out on the rocks that I later identified as Right Spot (R016). As I panned across Rabbit Island just after the NOAA team led by Mark Sullivan arrived around 0930 I found Kawena (RH36) up close to the cliff at Middle Cliffs. Soon thereafter Aka hauled out on the west end of the island. Due to some technical difficulties the NOAA team had to delay their approach to Aka until about noon. He was herded up onto the beach from shallow water and got his new bling (tags J06 and J07) and now has his official ID of RJ06. He was measured and vaccinated, but was too squirmy to allow for blood to be drawn.

While waiting for the tagging, Tracy and I discovered a turtle that appeared to be in distress and we saw that it had fishing line around its left front flipper. The turtle later seemed to disentangle itself, but Terry Kerby and colleague from the UH HURL research sub program, got in the water and were able to collect a fishing lure and about 20 yards of line so other animals won't get entangled. Overall a good day for marine animals. (Thank you T. Kerby)

Lei Ola