MonkSealMania.blogspot.com: 05/24/2020 Sunday Safe-At-Home (61) Monk Seal Dailies

Monday, May 25, 2020

05/24/2020 Sunday Safe-At-Home (61) Monk Seal Dailies

Aloha good people,
I hope you all are safe and healthy. I went to Honolulu today to run an errand and on the way home took the scenic route, made a stop to say hello to PO2 Nohea. I was able to say hello to my old friend Stacey and her family (including Tucker) and was able to get and elbow tap with Marilyn.
All I have to say is WOW that kid is chunky! And a big shout out to the volunteers (official and unofficial) and the Kaiwi Coalition for looking after this not so little girl.

Tammy headed out early to see if she could find Ka'ena RO40, who looked to be hooked in yesterdays' update.
Tammy first stopped in to see RL42 Leia feeding Kai PO4 breakfast. Next find was a UU that did a swim around in the ponds. When she got out to the point Ka'ena and the UU were fighting and did not stick around. Close by was RL74 Kami hidden in the rocks.
Continue on finally Tammy spotted Ka'ena hauling out. She did not see any hooks or lines coming from his mouth, although she did see him tossing his head back and forth. Ka'ena did settle and after checking it appears he has a damashi hook by his left front flipper.

Poor guy! This was all reported, hopefully Ka'ena will stick around for a few days, just so we can make sure he's hook free.
When Tammy was on her way out she came across RK40 Napua and RN04 Kainoa.

Early morning Team Billand checked out the west side and they were greeted with a wonderful surprise. In the company of RH32 Ka'ale was Miss Lei Ola RH48. She hasn't been seen on Oahu since January and at the beginning of this month she was seen on Maui. Our girl is home.
Ka'ale tried to get a little too close to her, when she gave him the look and he was smart enough to back down and settle in.

Team Billand was off to their next stop was a visit with RL42 Leia and PO4. When they arrived Mom and Pup were in the water swimming with people looking over to watch them. Team Billand informed the volunteer on site.
Mom and pup hauled out for a feeding. Waves were coming in hitting the pup so they went back for another swim.

From the right there was another seal hauling up on shore. Team Billand was able to ID RW02 PvKauai, by the scars on his neck area, ding on back and tags W02, W14, W77.

RW02 didn't bother with Mom and pup, he went into snooze mode. Leia was still in the water with the pup and let out a few barks. RW02 wasn't phased and stayed asleep.
RL42 Leia and PO4 hauled out to the left and went to sleep.

Marilyn viewed Rabbit Island for a couple of hours and found four critters.
Mom and PO3 were between the 1BS and 2BS. Once again the kid hid behind Mom for the first part of her visit. Mom headed for the water and PO3 went in the opposite direction. Interestingly Mom turned around and followed the kid and fed it lunch.

Based on recent conversations Marilyn has had with many of us, she suspects Mom to be RL12 Aukai. She was predicted to give birth about the time PO3 was born, she has a dark belly and two tags. Also Aukai hasn't been seen anywhere else on island . It's not a 100% but I'd bet one of my cats on this. ;-)

On rocky right beach there were two seals. The smaller juvenile with a new coat appears to be the weaner PO1. The other seal is an unknown juvenile female, older coat looking a little green, 2 tags and a female belly.

Marilyn had check on Weaner PO2 Nohea through out the day. Seems she likes her early morning swim followed by floating in the shallows.

In other news old friend and posse pal Karen B was diving today and she came across RN14 Kalani. I know Karen dives quite a bit but this is one of the first times she got to see a monk seal. (She usually spends a lot of time in the company of sharks :-)

RN04 Kainoa and RK40 Napua