10/24/2020 Saturday Monk Seal Dailies

Today's dailies are brought to you by Team Billand, Lesley and Marilyn.  Lesley's Ka'ena update is part two of the dailies.

Team Billand went searching for Kawika R407 but he was no where to be found today. They did note he originally hauled out on September 27th, began his molt on October 4th, finished molt on October 12th and left today on the 24th.  Probably best he left the area since there is lots of erosion from the rains, brown water and debris.

At 9 am they arrived at the bay and found R3CX Nalu hanging out by

the boats, ten of them out there today. His natural bleach on his face and tags were visible.  Lei Ola RH48 was at times by the jetty but spent most of the time further out. She was recognized by her green snout and seems to like hanging out with Nalu.  Team Billand is pretty sure that Kaale RH32 was hanging out by the jetty the majority of the time. There were two seals together, Team Billand pretty sure one was Nalu but could not ID the other critter.

At noon Team Billand found RL20 Kalua at another west side location. They did see the old line from the original hooking. He was sleeping in the dirty water, body partly submerged. Team Billand called him into the hotline.

Marilyn viewed Rabbit Island from 11:20 to 2 pm, and conditions were beautiful! There were seven seals on island today, guess they liked the conditions too. 

At LPB: Seal 1 - unknown adult, light female belly, subadult to adult size, new coat, and two tags. No bleach marks were seen, she was initially up on the berm making it hard to see. Eventually she moved down to waterfront rocks, is when Marilyn could see tags and belly.  She thinks this is the seal#3 from Friday.

Middle cliff area was: Seal 2 - unknown juvenile, light male belly juvenile size and two tags. 

Near the 3BS were: Seal 3 - unknown juvenile, newer coat, light belly. Marilyn never saw the belly clearly or whether the seal had tags. Originally she thought the seal might have had a hook, but determined it was a linear wet-dark mark.  Seal 4 - unknown adult, gray male belly, new coat and two tags. Marilyn thinks this is Seal#2 from Friday.

Near SRI were: Seal 5 - unknown juvenile/subadult, light female belly and two tags. Seal 6 - unknown weaner, male belly, older coat with a fair amount of green, no tags. Based on the older coat and smaller size Marilyn guess is this is PO1 who was born just over 8 months ago.

Out on the rock flats behind SRI was: Seal 7 - unknown weaner, very light male belly, larger/plump weaner size, no tags and no apparent bleaches.  At one point Marilyn thought it might have been PO5 but she believes it to be a male.

Brown waters

Nalu R3CX

Lei Ola RH48

Kaale RH32

Nalu and UU

RL20 Kalua

Rabbit Island