MonkSealMania.blogspot.com: 11/08/2020 Sunday Monk Seal Dailies

Sunday, November 8, 2020

11/08/2020 Sunday Monk Seal Dailies

Today's dailies are brought to you by Team Billand, Marilyn and posse pal Paul H.

Team Billand went out to the bay between 7:30 and 9:45 this morning and they spotted one seal. The seal was by a boat briefly swimming, then it was gone. Then they spotted Nalu R3CX who would be the only seal they ID. He was swimming by the boats and the jetty. They stayed hoping some others would show up but none did. Although there were no seals they did see the Iwa bird eat a fish mid air, and a Boobie caught his own fish, pretty amazing.

Team Billand went searching for Benny at a west side beach, but he was not there. They did find some

spew and poo and in the old days, if you collected this stuff you earned a T-shirt. But those days are long gone. The spew had some large Tako pieces, bile and worms which is all normal for seals.

Team Billand noticed a guy taking photos of something in the water., they saw a turtle, but then a seal popped up. Turns out to be RH32 Kaale, he did not land, as the tide was still high. They returned later after before 1 pm and there was Kaale on the rocks, alone snoozing. He is looking good, no hooks or new markers.

At 1 pm while watching Kaale on the rocks they saw a seal haul out across the way. There were a couple of folks sitting where he came in. They made their way over and found some signs they were able to place around the seal. They ID'd RG28 Lefty. They called the hotline and left the area.

At a nearby beach they found Kekoa Alii RK72 on lower rocks snoozing. He was alone and looking quite green. He stayed in one position and they were unable to get a look at his belly to see the condition of his molt.

At 2:30 they headed back to the bay to take a last look and this time they found Lei Ola RH48 snoozing

on the rocks alone and looking quite fat. There were people heading to the area so they left to not draw any attention to her. They did see another seal in the deep section off shore foraging but two jet skies were buzzing around and the seal disappeared before they could get a possible ID.

Before calling it a day they went looking one more time for Benny. At 3:15 they finally found him. Da Benny was sleeping on shore alone enjoying the peace, but that didn't last long. A few tourist arrived and headed right for him. Team Billand did their best to keep them back, one guy understood but the others wanted to get close and touch him. Benny woke up and raised his head to look. That deterred them, at least for now. Team Billand got a good look at Benny and it appears he's 100% molted. They called the hotline and hung around for a little bit longer. Hopefully a volunteer will arrive or Benny bites them.

Marilyn did find Right Spot R016 today. She was snoozing and is continuing her molt, which she estimates about 55% with big chunks ready to fall off. There was an SRA and volunteer on site.

Marilyn viewed Rabbit Island for almost 3 hours this afternoon. There were seven seals today!

Seal 1 - UJF, orginally on LPB but she entered the water about 10 minutes later and then hauled out between middle cliff and 3BS about 20 minutes later and stayed 15 feet awat from Seal 2 Kolohe. Seal 1 was juvenile size, new coat, light female belly and 2 tags.

Seal 2 - RW22 Kolohe, male belly, adult size, partial tag and NB behind RFF. He was in almost the

same place as yesterday between Middle Cliff and 3BS.

Seal 3 - UM, adult size, new coat, gray male belly and 2 tags. There may have been a C scar in the midventral area. He was about 20 feet Makapuu side of 3BS.

Seal 4 - JF, juvenile size, light gray female belly and 2 tags. She was about 50 feet left side of SRI. She was later joined by Seal 5.

Seal 5 UM, adult size, older coat, darker male belly and two tags. There appears to be a horizontal line scar on the lower right face. He was on the rock flats behind SRI.

Seal 6 - N2 Nohea, weaner size, no tags, light female belly and applied N2 bleach She was hiding behind Seal 5.

Marilyn was getting ready to leave when she spotted a weaner had hauled out 25 ft left of 1BS. Seal 7 weaner size, no tags, no applied bleach and lighter belly. Weaner was sandy but appeared to be female so maybe this is PO5.

Posse pal Paul was on the west side today (I think going for a dive),

but on his way out he spotted two critters, an adult and a youngen. Paul was generous enough to send some photos, and I asked Barb for help with the IDs. ( In full disclosure I am clueless when it comes to making an ID).
The very green adult with the cookie scar on its back appears to be Ka'ena RO40. The little one is a female young white belly. Barb's guess and I agree it's possibly the little Molokai girl Lina RL98. She does have tags but could not get a read on them.

Nalu R3CX