06/26/2021 Saturday Monk Seal Dailies

Today's dailies are brought to you by Marilyn and Team R&B💕.

Marilyn viewed Rabbit Island from about 12:25 to 2:00 pm. The viewing conditions were perfect but unfortunately there was only one seal on island today.

Initially she didn't see any seal but there were three humans, two kayakers and one skin diver. They wewre all at the RRB area and beyond.  Shortly after Marilyn spotted what turned out to be Weaner P04 Manana playing in tide pools in the nearshore rock flats between the 3BS and SRI.  Marilyn would get glimpses of her, but mostly she was submerged. Finally about 1:50 she hauled out and was ID'd by her weaner size and coloration, no NB on her LFF. There really wasn't much going on, except on occasion she appeared to be eating/mouthing various treats.

Team R&B was out bright and early and found a seal foraging in the bay. There were lots of fish according to the fishermen. Then RL20 Kalua popped up eating fish and doing four minute dives. They did their best to get some good shots and was happy when they got the tag shot.  Believe it or not when they went back later for another check, RL20 was still at it. Unfortunately now there were lots of people in the water, but he just kept foraging and moving away from them.

Team R&B checked all over and even made it to KoOlina. When they arrived they saw two seals on shore in a zone that security had made. They were able to quickly RL12 Aukai but the male took a little longer. He was sandy and moved around and could only see a stub of a tag. They pretty sure its RW22 Kolohe.  He quickly moved on shore towards Aukai  there were some folks a little close. Security put a few more signs to keep people back. Don't need to have a male going after a female and anyone getting in the way.  Finally Kolohe got as close as Aukai allowed and they both settled in.

When Team R&B returned to check on RL20 and hoping he would land. But the little green eating

machine was still foraging. They did however find the gorgeous RH48 Lei Ola on the rocks alone snoozing. She is looking quite beautiful and peace. 

In other news Team R&B got word the vintage plane that crashed the other day was being salvaged this morning. They got to the site and there was a raft of four men, with tanks, float bags and other equipment.  It took several hours to complete the job, there were divers that tied cable to plane along with float bags. Finally the men pulled the cables with the raft and then pulled the plane and float bags to the bigger ship Kupaa.  The plane wasn't it great shape, but observing this whole process was amazing. Team R&B cheered the hard working salvage crew! 

P04 Manana Weaner

RL20 Kalua

Aukai RL12

Kolohe RW22

Aukai and Kolohe

Lei Ola

salvage of vintage plane