MonkSealMania.blogspot.com: March 10, 2019 Monk Seal Dailies

Sunday, March 10, 2019

March 10, 2019 Monk Seal Dailies

Todays dailies are brought to you by Team Billand and Marilyn.

Mrs. Whisperer headed for Sandy Beach first thing this morning, since Right Spot had been there at dusk last evening. She was still there and completely clean of all the sand, which made this mornings ID easy. Marilyn ID'd her by female belly, no tags, NB on her right rear side and her upper chest wound/scar. She looks good and her wound is healing. Volunteer Kayla arrived while while Marilyn was there, so she headed out to search other areas.

Marilyn viewed Rabbit Island from the pier from 10:45 am to 12:30 pm, conditions were sunny but windy with a couple of passing showers. The challenge was keeping the camera still for the photos, not always easy when its windy.
When Marilyn arrived there was one seal on the sand left of the 1BS, one seal up in the morning glory to the right of the 1BS and 3 seals to the right of the 3BS (one up in the morning glory, one mid beach and one behind the waterfront rocks).

The two seals by the 1BS, unknown juvenile UJ#1 is a smaller juvenile, has lots of green in its coat and two tags. Marilyn thinks the belly was female, but NOT willing to bet any cats on it. Her best guess is its either RK37 or RK38. Unknown juvenile UJ#2 started out up in the morning glory but moved down on the beach about 11 am. Again this is a smaller juvenile, has a fair amount of green in its coat and two tags. Marilyn never got a good look at the belly to determine gender. She is guessing RK37 or RK38.

The three seals to the right of the 3BS, RW22 Kolohe started out in the morning glory and started moving down onto the beach about 10:55 am. He was ID'd by his adult size, NB behind his RFF and his applied N@@ bleach on his back. He moved down behind the waterfront rocks. (good to have him back on the east side).
RN46 Kea was mid beach at the start but also moved down later tot he waterfront rocks. He was ID'd by his adult size, male belly and NBs seen on 3 of his 4 flippers, in particular the large NB on his RFF. I saw at least one of his tags.
Unknown Male was behind the waterfront rocks. He was a juvenile to sub adult size, light coat on his male belly. Marilyn could not see if tags were present or any other identifying marks.

Team Billand was out at 6:40 am checking out the beaches when they spotted three guys fishing and looking to the left. Team Billand recognized that there was probably something there so they pulled over and sure enough a seal was hauling in. They could see it was Kekoa Alii RK72, and they called the hotline. No sooner as they reported him, Kekoa galumphed up to the grassy area looked around and headed back in the water heading in a westerly direction. So they got back in the car and headed west and a little later they found Kekoa at a westside beach on lower rocks snoozing alone.

At 10:30 am while observing Kekoa, they spotted another seal coming in and hauling up on high rocks. It was R3CU, he galumphed over the rocks, to check out the other seal. He went down the rocks to Kekoa and they greeted each other and went into snooze mode. As a side note Team Billand spotted some spew next to Kekoa, looked to be fish bones and some skin, they submitted information to NOAA.
While out at checking on Kekoa and R3CU they saw a critter doing 6 minute dives, they were not able to get any ID or markers other than it was an adult with tags.

Back on the road they stopped off and found RN14 Kalani on the rocks looking about, very alert. He then moved up and stayed on the rocks alone.
On their afternoon check they found Ka'ale RH32 had joined his bosom buddy RN14 Kalani. Ka'ale was to the left bothe sleeping.

About 11:30 am Team Billand arrived at KoOlina and saw a chubby seal in a zone too high up on shore. They went and adjusted the zone with the help of Security Christian.

It was da Benny resting so Team Billand took the opportunity to educated the folks hanging out. Suddenly a very quick little 2 year old took off running into the zone heading for Benny. The Dad jumped the ropes and ran it to catch the little one. It happened so quickly that everyone was shocked at how fast this little guy was able to run. Benny stayed still while all the excitement was taking place. Thankfully everyone was safe and respectful. Team Billand had called the hotline twice to inform them and when a volunteer arrived they updated her and left.

Right Spot R016