09/12/2020 Saturday Monk Seal Dailies

Today's dailies are brought to you by Marilyn and Team Billand.  I know Lesley had a very busy day so hopefully she'll catch up with us tomorrow.

Marilyn viewed Rabbit Island today from 11:30 to 1:30 and there were five critters today.

At LPB near each other were:

Seal 1 - unidentified adult male, older coat, 2 tags

Seal 2 - unidentified weaner or juvenile, newer coat, never got a good view of belly. Tags were not visible tags during a flipper flex so good chance this is a weaner.

Between the 3BS and SRI was:

Seal 3 - adult male, old coat with lots of green and 2 tags. Although Marilyn never saw the applied N11 bleach she thinks this is RG32. 

Near SRI was:
Seal 4 - unidentified juvenile male, new coat, 2 tags and light male belly. At about 1:15 pm, Seal 4 galumphed along the beach to join Seal 3. They had a quick nose-to-nose encounter and then both went back to snoozing.

Seal 5 - unidentified weaner, new coat, light female belly, no tags and no applied bleach on the right side. This may be PO5, Makanalani.

Early this morning Team Billand spotted a seal at the outfall but could not get an ID. It was seen stealing fish so that convinces me it was Ka'ale RH32.

A little later in the morning while observing the outfall they spotted another seal hauling up on a beach across the way. There were some fishermen with poles in the water, the seal looked around turned and left. They were able to determine this was da Benny RE74.

There was a pod of dolphins off shore and while watching them they spotted a seal coming in. It's Benny came in close, took a look and headed back where he came from.

Team Billand headed off to a nearby beach and sure enough there is Benny. There were lots of people around, so they called the hotline.  Benny made his way up and down the sand mound. At one time he went close to one of the sunbathers then back down. 

While watching da Benny Team Billand notice Ka'ale had landed at a neighbor beach. If that wasn't enough they spotted a 3rd seal haul out by the bath house.

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They made their way over and found R407 on shore. There were a few dogs running around on the beach so they called the hotline. It took some time to get his ID but cookie scars on mid back with line scar, scar on left shoulder gave them the information they needed.

Last they found RL20 Kalua sleeping on a sand patch. He later moved up on the rocks as the waves moved him about. He seems to be 50% molted all his under belly is nice and white. 

Ka'ale RH32

Benny RE74

R407

RL20 Kalua