08/01/2018 Monk Seal Dailies: (part 2) Lesley's Ka'ena Update

After doing my Wednesday morning routine at the gate and checking CE for seals, I joined Tammy and we went off for our KPt monitoring including the Waianae side of the park.

At 10Mnts Beach, Tammy spotted RN58 "Luana" high on the beach at the Naupaka line. Her molt is going at the speed of light. Today was D5 and she's in her 70% - I'm amazed how fast it's going.

We checked all nooks and cervices, our next seal was RO40 "Ka'ena" on the outside pool of Main Pool. We had to hang around there a while doing some outreach.

We left for our Waianae side hike and met up with Barbara near the 40Mnts mark. We walk back with her till that side 10Mnts, alas no seals but great to spend some time with Barbara and catching up. We also saw Noddys - did you know that a group is called an "affirmation", "niddle" and "sleepiness" of Noddys ? One thing for sure you can smell them from down wind or see their signature white rocks.

On our way back near the big Arch we saw some diving equipment, harpoon and their catch but no diver. We hanged around for a while and saw one guy coming on the road from the NARS side. He & 2 friends were diving, their boat got loose and ended up capsized on some reefs. We walked over there and helped them out a little lending them a phone and calling DLNR / COASTGUARD and some friends to come help them. After cooking in the sun for a longtime Tammy & I continued our hike.

We spotted a seal, I was happy to see and ID U/U "Whiskers" again - IDed "it" by it's scars, specially the one between it's eyes. I had documented "Whiskers" several weeks ago and send report to NOAA. Since then "IT"s been seen again but never gave us a glimpse of it's sex.

Back at KPt Main Pool "Ka'ena" was hauled out on the outer reefs.

At 10Mnts "Luana" was near the waterline.

We decided to go check CE again and there was RK36 "Kauai Kolohe" hauled out on the big stretch of beach all for himself in the same spot he was with "Holokai" yesterday. There was another trail near by so there may have been a second seal.

That wraps up a long a 9 hour day out in the sun !  More tomorrow