6/17/2018 Monk Seal Dailies: Lesley's Update Yesterday & Today

Saturday Jun 16th, 2018

When we arrived at Playpen 1 - PO4 "Puna" (M) D49 was playing in the water, catching & tossing things around.

PO5 "Napua" (F) D43 was hauled out near Hugging Rocks sleeping peacefully.

PO4 "Puna" swam towards her side of the beach and kept playing in the water, diving for treasures. He has had cucumber guck on his whiskers for the past several days.

We next headed out to the point. It was VERY hot with no breeze in the air, but the ocean was absolutely gorgeous to watch.

The albatross chicks were quiet but we could count dozens of heads sticking up everywhere.

Our first seal find was R330 "Squinty" in BGs Pool. It's always a pleasure to see him. He was turned in a great position, we IDed him at one look. LOVE NBs !!

Then a little further on Squinty's Reef we found RO40 "Ka'ena".

At the point in the Main Pool, RR70 "RIP" was laying half-in-half-out of the water. We were sure it was him but ID was only confirmed looking at the photos on a big screen at home. He only gave us his chip tag to go by, later I check all the light scars and the one on his hind flipper.  Aloha

Went down midday to check on the kids  (Sunday) 

PO5 "Napua" (F) D44 was sleeping on the waterline of playpen 1. A bigger set tossed her around so she entered the water and started play and diving for things.

For general information: for several days now the bleach is no longer visible. When PO5 "Napua" weaned on D39 she still had a lot of her black fur, most of it is gone now with only a slight thin patch here and there, only visible when she's dry.

PO4 "Puna" (M) D50 was hauling out on his favorite little sand patch of sand between rocks in front of the Keiki Coves. He settled down and went into a deep sleep.

As I walked down the beach towards the sites I saw RN58 "Luana" - she was reported there since yesterday afternoon. Some beach goers were settle right in front of her, they had already had outreach done by a volunteer covering the morning shift.

Inside the "PO4 pup site" a family was playing and had there little set up. I walked straight to the "PO5 pup site", on my way back they were packing to leave, I had a chance to do outreach with the mom and pointed out RN58 "Luana" (she was on the outside of the fenced area). Mom was cool and interested, it was their first time on this side. She agreed with me that although it's beautiful, it's not a friendly swimming beach for kids.  Aloha