MonkSealMania.blogspot.com: September 6, 2019 Monk Seal Dailies

Friday, September 6, 2019

September 6, 2019 Monk Seal Dailies

Today's dailies are brought to you by Team Billand, Tammy of Team T&D, and Lesley. In the yesterday news department Melody sent some news of Nanea.

Team Billand arrived at KoOlina before 6 am for the 6th day to find RH92. However this morning when they arrived it was still dark but they saw some movement and when they got closer they see a Japanese tourist (who they have seen at the site for the past week) inside the seal zone near RH92.
Team Billand ran over telling him to "Step away from the seal". The man ignored them and this time they yelled out loud when they see the flash from the guys cell phone or camera. Team Billand continue to call out to him but he headed up the rocks to to take more photos of the ocean. (It's still dark out) Shame on him! AND to top it off today the signs and ropes were already up, so he should have known something was up. Team Billand called the hotline and left a message.

At first light they could finally see the RH92's molt is progressing today, under her neck, the head and upper chest. Finally !

RH92 seemed restless, she opened her mouth a lot, fully open but not making a sound. Then Team Billand heard her moaning. She may be really uncomfortable with her molting, itchy and all. I know Team Billand will keep an eye on her.

There was over 100+ visitors at the site today, and fortunately they were all good and respectful (except the one dude early morning). Volunteer Karen arrived and was there with Team Billand educating the masses.

RH92 turned to move up due to the big surf and Team Billand left shortly after.

Marine Mammal woman Tracy stopped by, and was excited to see there was progress in RH92s molt. Team Billand was able to talk story about their training at the Sausalito facility. An experience many of us will never forget. Here's Team Billand's post from 2009.
http://monksealmania.blogspot.com/2009/05/barbara-rob-billand-adventure.html

Next stop for Team Billand was a beach on the west side. There they saw a molted female, it took them a bit for a positive ID but finally they were able to confirm it was RH36 Kawena, with a brand new coat.
They also saw RN14 Kalani ID'd by his scar on hind flipper. And then there was a third seal RG28 with all his cookie scars and left white bleach on flipper.

Kawena was on high rocks alone and snoozing the entire time. She was ID'd by her tags, which she took forever to show. She is looking beautiful, spotless. Team Billand did see the hooking scar on the right corner of her mouth.

RG28 approached RN14 who was asleep below Kawena. A fight broke out between the two boys and it lasted for a bit, even into the water. They both came back and fought some more. Meanwhile Kawena never flinched with all the commotion.

After some time both boys ran out of energy and went to sleep, apart from each other. They put on quite a show today and totally entertained Team Billand.

Last seal they spotted for the day was Lei Ola RH48. Team Billand spotted her hiding in "hippo position" , unable to see her tag through the water. She was resting comfortably.
They did recheck on her and she was still in the same spot and well hidden in a small shallow pond.

The last bit of excitement for Team Billand was watching some surfers taking advantage of the big waves.

Tammy was solo today without Dave. She first came across Nanea RL44 and Holokai RG40 sleeping on opposite ends of a cove. Holokai is looking very handsome in his new coat. A passer by mentioned there was another seal down a bit.
Tammy went to check and there she found Kaimana RJ58 looking very green. She was alone and resting comfortably.
Back to Nanea who had woke up and headed for the water. Tammy followed Nanea and first she was having fun playing in the rain. Then she found herself a pull top from a can, followed by a piece of plastic. Nanea's next find was a piece of pvc pipe and FINALLY she found something organic a nice sea cucumber.

In the Yesterday News department Melody went to visit with Nanea and arrived about 9:30 am. There were a couple of visitors looking into the ocean off shore and pointed out Holokai and Nanea taking a swim together. (Holokai is being a good "uncle"). They were having a good time foraging and playing, always a treat to watch.
Volunteer Carolyn was on site and said that Holokai and Nanea had just gone into the water about 20 minutes before. That when she arrived Kaimana was on shore with Nanea and Holokai was off by the fencing.

Watching Nanea and Holokai in the water, Nanea of course started bringing up trash (toys) in her mouth. Holokai distracted her and they headed back to the beach, but Holokai ditched Nanea and headed out to sea. She looked around for him but kept playing in the water by herself. She spent over 2 hours in the water.

When volunteer Barbara showed up and while Nanea was still playing in the water. Melody went back to check on Kaimana. She was still resting at the water's edge. About 15 minutes later she began to stir and headed out into the open waters, not to be seen again.

Then Nanea showed up and she took a well deserved snooze break. While she was sleeping there was another seal off shore who they thought was Holokai but this seal was this seal was very shiny and near completion of its molt. Melody got a tag shot and wasn't able to read until she got home. The tag was G41... isn't that Holokai's tag? G40/G41 ?
Melody called it a day at 2:30.

RH92