MonkSealMania.blogspot.com: 8/5/2018 Monk Seal Dailies: (part 1) RH32, RK72, RE74, RL42, RO40, Rabbit Island U/U, PO6 & RG32

Sunday, August 5, 2018

8/5/2018 Monk Seal Dailies: (part 1) RH32, RK72, RE74, RL42, RO40, Rabbit Island U/U, PO6 & RG32

Today's dailies are brought to you by Team Billand, Marilyn and Lesley. Lesley's complete Ka'ena Update is part 2 of the dailies.

Team Billand was out early (as usual) and upon arriving at the outfall all you can eat seafood buffet. they spotted two seals foraging together. They know RH32 Ka'ale is there and turns out the other critter is Kekoa Alii RK72 following him in. Both were having no problem catching plenty of fish.

Kekoa disappeared after just over an hour. Then just before Team Billand was ready to leave one of the fishermen had live bait on the hook and tossed it, and guess who went for it. Rob worked with the fisherman to keep the line tight, reel it in keep it tight. Fisherman did a great job, and Ka'ale ended up letting the fish go. The hook still in the fish and was safely retrieved. Everyone took a deep breath! Team Billand headed out to check other areas.

Team Billand's next stop at a Leeward Beach they initially found two seals. It was Benny RE74 & Leia RL42 together. Leia became aware of another seal to the left on the rocks, it was RIP RR70. All was quiet everyone was resting.
Team Billand came back later in the day and there was a slight change, Benny was in the water sulking and moved on towards the east. NOW, RIP was next to Leia and won the honor of staying with RL42. (hmmm wonder how much of fight Benny put up).

When Team Billand returned from Ka'ena West they stopped at one of the Leeward Beaches, and they found Kekoa Alii RK72 snoozing on the rocks. He wasn't there when they headed out, so he arrived sometime while they were on their trek.

Marilyn was at the Pier today to view Rabbit Island from about noon to 1:45 pm. When she first arrived there were three seals in a group between the 3BS and Seal Rock Inlet. One of the seals went into the water before she had the camera ready. That seal played in the water and she thought it might be a weaner.

Then at 12:44 she saw an adult to sub-adult seal haul out in the middle cliff area. This critter "might" have been in the water playing with the weaner.
The two seals that stayed on the sand between the 3BS and SRI were; RG32, ID'd light male belly two tags and an applied N32 applied bleach. The other UM#1 was adult size, male belly, two tags, darker belly with lots of green and possibly a scar or other discoloration behind the LFF.

At 1:14, PO6 hauled out near UM#1. PO6 ID'd by weaner size/shape and coloration, no tags and she spotted the natural bleach on "her" lower left side. PO6 seemed a bit leery of approaching UM#1 and went back in the water at 1:27 pm. Marilyn did not see PO6 again after that.
UU#2 was ID'd as a sub-adult to adult size, light belly, undetermined sex, two tags, some green around the eyes. Hauled out to middle cliff area at 12:44 pm and was there when she left later.

Ka'ale RH32