MonkSealMania.blogspot.com: 6/7/2018 Monk Seal Dailies (part 1)

Thursday, June 7, 2018

6/7/2018 Monk Seal Dailies (part 1)

Today's dailies are brought to you by Team Billand, Melody, Team T&D and Lesley. Lesley's complete Ka'ena update is part 2 of the dailies.
HAPPY 2nd Birthday to Ka'ale RH32 aka Butt-head who decided to celebrate in his own way.

Team T&D made their way out to Ka'ena Point. Upon arrival their only find was trails and wallows. Lesley joined them and brought some luck, as she arrived, Ka'ena RO40 showed up in the main pool. He hauled up on "rock island" and remained there for the day. Lesley's complete update include an update on the playpen is available in part 2 of the dailies.

Team Billand started the day running.... literally. When they arrived at the outfall at 5:30 am, one of the regular fisherman posse told them he hooked a seal. He cut the line, he showed them the size of the hook and line weight. He felt terrible, he let them know he didn't mean to do it, the seal showed up and took the line. Team Billand just missed all of this but they were on a mission. Team Billand also had notified NOAA immediately of the situation.

They checked the nearby beach looking for the critter suspect. They found two seals neither of them had a hook or line. They ID'd RK72 Kekoa and RG32 a 3 year old little dude from Molokai. This is RG32's first visit to the west side that we know of. Thankfully he had a bleach number which made it really ID. Team Billand checked them out thoroughly and left to search further. Team Billand also had notified NOAA immediately of the situation.

Team Billand received a call from Melody, she was with three seals. Barbara told her to check them for any hooks or lines. She thought she saw a line attached to RN14 Kalani. Barbara met up with Melody and checked out the photos, Barbara didn't see any line or hook. She updated NOAA, by process of elimination all bets are on Ka'ale RH32. Surprise surprise! He was no where to be found today.

Melody sent her update and apparently team work does pay off. Good job everyone! Melody was out and about and at 8:30 she spotted some hind flippers sneaking behind a large rock. All of a sudden there was all kinds of commotion and barking going on back there. She went to take a look behind the rocks there were two seals brawling in the tide pool. While she was in the process of calling Team Billand she realized there were THREE seals.

Barbara had Melody check on RN14 as mentioned previously. While on the phone RG32 took a leap over Kekoa and Kalani and made a break for it. Guess the west side is a little to rough for the little guy. The other two quickly followed and they were all gone. They headed toward the KoOlina direction. Melody met up with Team Billand and reviewed the photos checking for hooks or fishing line. They spent the rest of the morning looking for Ka'ale since he seemed to be the culprit.

Along their travels they came across RN14 Kalani near a tide pool, volunteer Melina was there and spotted another critter coming in. Shortly after there was a third seal on the lower rocks tide pool right behind him. The three Kekoa, RG32 and Kalani spent time in the water all three playing and thrashing about.

About 11:20 Melody got a message from Barbara that a seal was at Ewa Beach. Melody decided to go check it out since it was so close to home. Upon arrival she found one of the local residents John had blocked off the area and a sign to protect the seal. Melody ID'd the seal (with a little help) and confirmed it was her most favorite seal Rocky RH58. Melody called the hotline since there were lots of people around. Melody spent time doing outreach with two groups of children who wanted to know all about Rocky. Melody stayed until 2:30 and called the hotline to let them know she was leaving.

Ka'ena RO40