11/17/2018 Monk Seal Dailies: (part 1)

Today's dailies are brought to you by Team Billand, Marilyn and Lesley.  Lesley did the Ka'ena Saturday trek on her own today and her update is part two of the dailies.

Marilyn decided to stay on the east side instead of the usual Saturday Ka'ena trek due to the rainy, windy weather.  Her first check this morning was Spitting Cave for about and hour. There was a seal in front of what has been called "2nd point" doing 8 minute dives. Her guess is the seal was a juvenile to subadult had two tags and very white lower lip area, and a lighter belly. 

From there Marilyn headed over to the Pier to observe Rabbit Island early afternoon. Conditions were overcast and windy which makes observation conditions crappy.  She spotted three seals total on the island. Two seals were located about 15 feet apart about 50 feet east of the 1BS.  
Seal #1 - RN46 Kea (a good possiblity) Marilyn observed a male belly and newish coat, and is pretty sure she saw the natural bleach on his RFF. (Thank goodness for that natural bleach)
Seal #2 - RW22 Kolohe - this adult seal hardly moved during her viewing but she did see the cue ba;; natural bleach behind the RFF.  Looks as though he is completely molted, although Marilyn never got a glimpse of his belly.
Seal #3 - unknown sub-adult to adult up in the morning glory about 40 feet east of the 3BS. This seal only showed its face once and Marilyn was never able to determine its sex. The seal had an older coat with yellowish brown belly.

 Team Billand did their usual routine of check points and first found seal was Kekoa where he was yesterday. He was already up on the rocks when they arrived, snug as a bug. Today he was on his own even when they went to recheck him in the afternoon.

Next stop they found Pohaku RO28, when they arrived there were five signs around. It appears there had been volunteers on site but Team Billand didn't see anyone while they were there. Pohaku was high up on shore, resting peacefully for the time being. There were lots of campers, parties and big waves. Team Billand stayed for a while and then was on their way to their next stop.

Last stop of the day for Team Billand came as they were heading home and got a call, so they headed over to Plains. There was a seal and a zone set up by the lifeguards. They were able to ID Buster boy RV08, resting but very alert. Seems there was a Dad teaching his children how to make seal noises.  ( times like this I wish the seals would react by doing something like barfing or crapping just to let them know what we all think of that behavior).  Good thing was Team Billand did meet some nice folks who cared about seal, always nice to have good people balance out the circus acts. Team Billand called into hotline they stayed for over and hour and left before anyone arrived.

Kea

 Kolohe

 UU in the morning glory

 UU (at spitting cave)

 Kekoa

 Pohaku

Buster