Saturday, March 13, 2021

03/13/2021 Saturday Monk Seal Dailies

Todays dailies are brought to you by Marilyn, Melody and Team R&B💕. 

Melody got a text this morning of a seal in Waikiki so she headed over to check it out. She was happy to find da Benny RE74 hanging out at the waters edge. Melody was told that he hauled out late last night and by the looks of his wallow he spent the night way up past the life guard tower.  He slowly made his way to the waters edge and remained for several hours.  The beach was quiet in the morning with the rain, but once the sun broke around noon, the beach filled up with people. Melody took the time to talk story with them about Benny. She left mid afternoon and Benny was still there enjoying the sun.

Marilyn viewed Rabbit Island from 11 to 1:17. She would have stayed longer but had to leave after a wave hit the rocks in front of the building and got her and the equipment wet. Marilyn saw six seals on island today. Initially there were three critters and eventually three others hauled out.

There were two seals on the beach near the 1BS. Seal 1; sub-adult to adult size, two tags light female belly. Seal 2; Sub-adult to adult size, two tags and light male belly.  About an hour and a half she saw a third seal had joined them. Seal 3; adult size, gray male belly and two tags. There was a lot of interaction between them.

Near the 3BS was Seal 4; juvenile size with light belly unknown gender and possible two tags. The seal was originally up in the dunes and later moved down to the water. Marilyn suspects this might be one of the 2019 critters.

Just before noon Marilyn realized two seals had hauled out to the inlet at the end of RRB. They were partly obscured by waterfront rocks. Later with the rising tide they moved further up and into better view. Seal 5; sub-adult to adult size, two tags and unknown sex. Seal 6; adult size, gray male belly and at least one tag. This seal may have a NB on the tip of the LFF.

Team R&B first spotted RH32 Kaale foraging in the outfall alone. Later just before 11 they discovered

him hauled out at a nearby location on the rocks. He was alone and snoozing near one of the camps.

They waited for a while to see if any other critters would show up. Sure enough they spotted RN14 Kalani and decided to go by the fishermen. He lay on shore as if to wait for permission. Team R&B asked the fishermen to move a little and as soon as they did Kalani hauled out right where they had been sitting. Thankfully the fishermen were good sports and even got a good laugh about the whole thing.  One of the women in the group motioned to Team R&B of another seal coming. The seal hauled out next to Kalani who in turn reacted as if to say beat it! The seal was R407 Kawika who rolled back into the water and left.

Back to watching over Kaale they see another seal coming in fast to the area. Its Kawika R407 again he came over and poked Kaale with his snout. Kaale reared up and snorted, but Kawika just stayed and went lower than Kaale from the shallows.

Last stop for Team R&B today was at another west side spot where they found three seals. There was the lovely RH76 Kala, RK72 Kekoa in the water hole and RW02 on the rocks. RW02 eventually moved to the playboy pond. 

Benny RE74
Rabbit Island three seals
Seal 4
Seal 5 and 6
Kaale RH32
Kalani RN14
R407 Kawika
Kawika and Kalani
Kawika hauls out with Kaale
RH76 Kala
Kekoa RK72
RW02 PvKauai
PvKauai dipping into the playboy pond

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