07/31/2020 Friday Monk Seal Dailies

Today's dailies are brought to you by Team Billand, Lesley, posse pal Vicki and Dana. 

Lesley's two updates are posted separately for today and from Thursday. 

Dana sent a tribute to Rocky for her 20th birthday.

Vicki brings news from Wednesday and Thurday.

Team Billand brings news from today.

Team Billand checked a west side location at 7 am and found RG28 on lower rocks, when RF28 Paakea landed with him. there was no interaction, but settled down and went to sleep.

At 8 am they found Ka'ale RH32 stealing fish as usual. Team Billand was unable to stay. Ka'ale was 

very busy chasing the lines when they left.

They went back to check on F&G 28. They were both gone from the lower rocks. They went over to the right when they could hear sounds. It was RF28 Paakea alone vocalizing. They did see RG28 swimming off shore, then he was gone.

Paakea made it to the rocks once again, barked out loud and landed. He went from pond to pond looking then he finally settled.

Team Billand was about to leave about 12:20 when they spotted another seal coming in to lower rocks but it took off. The critter went around to where Paakea was and made his way up on the rocks getting closer to RF28 who let out a big bellow. The other seal was Benny RE74 and after a loud roar, Benny left the area going out to sea.

Lastly another seal appears, rolling in the shallows with the rising tide. It's a female with tags, and much to their surprise it's RH48 Lei Ola. She made her way to the inland rocks. And as quick as she was there she was gone.

They ran over to RF28 and spot Lei Ola approaching him from behind. He did nothing, she was rolling around looking over to him the entire time. ( what a flirt)  Finally she rolled off and swam out leaving the area.

Posse pal Vicki was on the eastside on Wednesday the 29th. She found RK36 Kauai Kolohe snoozing on a beach. 

Vicki made a quick observation of Rabbit Island noting there were five seals there.

On Thursday the 30th Vicki headed up to the North Shore where the found Right Spot R016. Nice to see her since it's been a while.
Along with Right Spot she found Holokai at an other north shore location. 

thank

Ka'ale RH32

RF28 Paakea

Lefty RG28 and Paakea RF28  BROTHERS

Lei Ola RH48

Benny RE74

Five Seals on Rabbit Island

Kauai Kolohe RK36

Holokai 

Right Spot

7/31/2020 Happy 20th Birthday Rocky RH58

A Legendary Flipper Tale of

Rocky RH58

by Dana Jones

Rocky is a much loved and pretty darn famous Hawaiian Monk Seal.  Today, July 31, 2020 is her 20th birthday.  Her monk seal Ohana both on Kauai (born July 31, 2000 @ Mahalepu Beach) and her adopted Island of Oahu definitely want to wish her the best.

She was first seen on Oahu in 2003 and mostly visits the South shore with visits to the West side in between.  One of the good stories is of her legendary haul outs at a volunteer’s home in Diamond Head.  Generally, she would go to Colleen’s house to haul out and molt.  Rocky was around 12 years old at that time and would frequently visit Hale Koa and The Hilton Hawaiian Village when coming back from Kauai after weaning her pup.

In 2012, we had a “need” to film a monk seal for a popular TV show for the Aqua Kids; Hawaiian Monk Seal Adventure.  I was asked the evening before what HMSRTO might be able to do to help ensure a monk seal would be available for filming.  Normally I would laugh at such a request, but it just so happened that we had a call on Friday from our Kauai Ohana that Rocky had weaned her pup.  The filming would take place on a Sunday morning.  Having watched Rocky’s “somewhat” predictable behavior over the last couple of years fingers were crossed.  I mentioned she might show up in Waikiki the next morning.  The idea that we could predict her showing up was a bit unbelievable, but scoffing aside, lo and behold our RH58 Rocky was there at dawn.  It was a successful filming and she made her first famous debut on the show.

Rocky seems to have a predilection towards the spotlight.  Hauling out at Hilton Hawaiian and Hale Koa for many years (one New Year’s Day I will personally NEVER forget).  But, nothing can quite compare to her June 29, 2017 “miscalculation” on a very popular Waikiki Beach.  You can never know with monk seals, but Rocky’s pupping at Kaimana Beach that day was a landmark event.  Certainly, something we didn’t have a past history to compare to.  Luckily there were plenty of trained volunteers that were more than happy to watch after the two celebrities.  The mom and pup pair became a wonderful and positive focus for not only Hawaii’s people but the world as well in recognizing the plight of this special endangered species.

We still have visitors calling us and asking how Rocky and Kaimana are doing.  Fortunately we can all say, happy 20th birthday Momma Rocky.  Your fans and Ohana celebrate your life and you as a living legend.

07/31/2020 (part 2) Lesley's Ka'ena Update

And just like that another month ends - tomorrow is already AUGUST !!!

I wonder how long it's going to take to see the first X-mas things at Costco !?!?!

I had a very interesting morning. As I arrived @ 10Mns Beach I spotted 3 seals.

RL98 Lina was further down the beach and RK40 Napua and an U/F were near each other.

as the tide was rising Lina made her way up the beach. Napua woke up tossed and turned and gallumphed her way to the new girl. There was a slight interaction, more of an acknowledgement of each one's presence, then both settled down.

I documented the new girl from muzzle to hind flippers, she didn't show any ID markings and is untagged - documentation was sent to NOAA

She's individual seal #33 documented by me in Ka'ena State Park since Jan 1st, 2020.

I had people waiting for me on this side, so I had to leave.  Hopefully, I'll see her again tomorrow 

07/31/2020 Yesterday's News: 7/30 Lesley's Ka'ena Update

Another fun day out here. Team T&D came by and we headed out to monitor the point together. Our first sighting was a beautiful freshly molted RK40 Napua @ 10 Mns Beach.

Next at the point RL74 Kami was on a reef on the waterline - she entered the water and sawm to another spot where she hauled out high and went to sleep

R330 Squinty did a swim by in the Main Pool, went out, came back in. We left he was doing the hippo.

We hiked the West side towards Keawa'ula. Team T&D pointed out towards the 30 Mns mark where 2 seals were hauled out on the reefs. As we got there, they pointed to a third seal bellow us. The first 2 seals were RN14 Kalani and RL20 Kalua green as a Kermit. The third one was RW02 PVKauai. We watched them for some time to confirm ID's, Kalani was the one that took the longest to ID. His NB on mid body right side kept throwing me off. At first I thought it could be RW22 Kolohe, but the NB was to small and further back on the body, so I waited for hi, to move. Got a chipped tag, no info.... then finally the confirmation tag. They entered the water and swam towards KPt. I hoped to see them again but didn't. Later we got info from Barbara saying she saw them haul out in different locations.

On our way back I went to check on some campers towards CE. On my way back I saw a seal hauling out at Lyman's West. So I headed there to ID it. It was RE74 Benny, before I was able to confirm his ID he did the Benny thing and rolled still wet on the soft dry sand... voila a breaded seal to ID!! Luckly I had a shot of his tag to confirm his ID.

When we were leaving the point Tammy saw an Albatross Chick take his test flight. We were cheering him from far as he came bee line from the middle field towards us on the makai trail. He landed in a Naupaka bush and we waited to see if he could make it out. He did and waddled his way back towards the center field. It completed Tammy's day.

More tomorrow