MonkSealMania.blogspot.com: 04/21/2018 Monk Seal Dailies: (part 1)

Saturday, April 21, 2018

04/21/2018 Monk Seal Dailies: (part 1)

Today's dailies are brought to you by Team Billand, Team D&T our Canadian posse, Marilyn and Lesley. Ka'ena Point Update from Lesley is part 2 of the dailies.

Team Billand was up and at em at 6 am. They found two seals by the jetty with fishermen and poles in the water. ( They ID'd Ka'ale RH32 and RN14 Kalani ) They watched closely and then Ka'ale bit the fish and was trying to eat it. They watched and asked the fisherman to keep the lines tight, so the seal wound't swallow the whole thing. The fishermen held the pole desperately to keep the line tight. They all saw the fish in Ka'ale's mouth, with the hook. One of the other fisherman commented that the seals must learn to eat at sea life park, because they so smart. Team Billand reminded them they are wild animals and not trained by anyone. The fisherman brought his line in quickly and the fish was gone but the hook was there. Everyone was holding their breathe thinking Ka'ale would swallow the hook, but he didn't!

Ka'ale and RN14 went back to the outfall once more, foraging. RN14 stayed to the left side, but Ka'ale is right there by all the fishing lines in the water. He dove deep, they could see him upside down trying to get something on the bottom. This continued for a while.

Next stop at a Leeward Beach Team Billand was thrilled to find RN14 Kalani hauling up on the rocks, but they didn't see Ka'ale at all. They waited hoping he would come along but he never did. Kalani stayed by himself.

Team Billand's next find was RW02 PvKauai alone on the lower rocks snoozing. Tags were showing and granddaughter Olivia made the ID. Good job kiddo!
On their recheck of the area they found da Benny RE74 with RW02 in the shallows. RW02 didn't want Benny in his spot, they had words nothing vicious. Benny respectfully turned to the left into the other pond nearby. There Benny stayed quietly while PvKauai was still mouthing off. Both seals remain together but in separate ponds.

Our Canadian posse pals Darlene and Todd searched the east side from China Walls, Spitting Cave and earlier checked Makalei & Kaimana Beach and found no one. But they did finally come across Kaiwi RK96. This is especially special for them because she was the first seal pup they followed on the blog thanks to DB <3. Happy to have you two out there watching over our critters.

After Marilyn got home from Ka'ena Point she went to the Pier to check on Rabbit Island. She only stayed about an hour because the chairs from the lanai had been removed. She immediately found Mystery Mom and PO1, as well as a juvenile/subadult male (UM#1) near the waterfront rocks just right of the 3BS. This is amazing and somewhat unusual for a Mom allowing another seal to be in such close proximity to her and the pup. There is a good chance this is the same UM from Marilyns' observation on 4/14 and 4/15. The pup appeared to be nursing when she first arrived.

Marilyn also observed and unknown adult male (UM#2) on the rocks along Seal Rock Inlet. This seal remained in the same position during the entire visit and no defining markers could be seen.

Ka'ale RH32