MonkSealMania.blogspot.com: 03/03/2020 Tuesday Monk Seal Dailies

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

03/03/2020 Tuesday Monk Seal Dailies

Today's dailies are brought to you by Team Billand, Lesley and my Rabbit Island observation. Lesley's Ka'ena Point update is part two of the dailies.

I went to observe Rabbit Island early this afternoon and only found Mom and PO1. For the hour I was there there was little to no movement and PO1 was well hidden behind Mom. I am not sure what happened but I could not get a single shot in focus, so I am only adding one very blurry picture of Mom's belly.

Team Billand was out before 7 am this morning. They were by the outfall area to tracks. They spotted a seal cruising the shoreline vocalizing. There were already tourist out on the beach running with it back and forth Then the seal popped up by a nearby beach and hauled out, galumphed to a rock. Had a little more to vocalize about, galumphed back to the water. The critter then swam and hauled up by the jetty. Team Billand left for an appointment.
When they got back they checked the jetty and found R407 was still on shore snoozing. Now there were a couple of people sitting with their two unleashed dogs. Team Billand called the hotline, gave them the directions where the seal was located, Let's hope someone made it out there.

About 8 am they saw a seal foraging. It had tags, small in size and a little green. The critter entered the outfall and swam about, looking around. They were able to ID RL20 Kalua. They were a little worried in that he's a young critter to be hanging out with all the fishing lines. He went to the corner then right and was gone.

Later in the afternoon at another west side location, they were thrilled and greatly relieved to find little RL20 Kalua hauled out left high rocks. He was aware of Kekoa to his right but just stayed where he was and went to sleep.

At 9 am Team Billand stopped at plains and found Buster on shore resting, but alert. There was no zone set up and Team Billand was told by some of the local folks they had made numerous calls to report the seals. Finally they saw the lifeguards and were able to wave them down. They came back to the location with signs and ropes. Team Billand set up the zone and educated a few folks that showed some interest. They called the hotline and had to leave for other appointments.

After their appointments at a west side beach Team Billand found Kawena RH36 on the rocks to the right of the seal inlet. Tags were visible. She was in a ponds, got out and to her right was Nalu R3CX.
He was to her side keeping tabs on her every move. Finally he moved over to check her out. Kawena at first flirted with him, but then gave him some whoop whoop and he settled down.

RW02 PvKauai was in the shallows snoozing in the water. His tags were visible making for an easy ID.
Kekoa Alii RK72 was all the way left high rocks hidden for the entire day. He didn't move much, but

Team Billand could see his markings on left side.

At 3:30 They found the beautiful Leia RL42 at a different west side location. She was very well hidden resting on the rocks. They did not want to blow her cover so they left shortly after.
At 4:00 they found a seal in a pond with his flippers on the rocks showing an old tag stub. They spotted the NB on the right side of his head. He was at an angle that made it really difficult to see much more but with patience they were able to determine RO40 Ka'ena.

407 Kawika hauled out by some unleashed dogs.