GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN (part 3 of a
series)
June 29, 2010 – May 17, 2018
by Dana Jones
Ua’Malie – RT10/11
Calm Rain
Photo Courtesy of
Lesley Macphearson
Nine years ago on a
lightly misting rainy morning, a newly trained volunteer living at Turtle Bay
was making her daily check of the beach areas surrounding the resort. Low
and behold she came upon a Momma seal (R5AY-Honey Girl) and a brand new
pup. A local lady said she should be named calm rain to match the day of
her birth. That name stuck and so it was to be, Ua’Malie.
This young pup would
begin a trend that is used to this day, by most response teams, to protect
young seal pups and weaners. The volunteer effort that had begun two
years prior with Hoku and Honey Girl, would grow to huge proportions with
Ua’Malie’s arrival.
A grass roots movement
that began with Chester on January 1, 2008 and would become the leading group,
for response and education, for the island of Oahu with the Hawaiian Monk Seal
Response Team of Oahu.
I was going through the
birth journal that we kept from that event in anticipation of writing this
article. The thing that stood out most in reminiscing about Ua’Malie was
her, of course, but the incredible people who came to the beach, literally, to
help look after her from her first day on the Earth. Some, like Donna
Festa gave a huge sacrifice and actually broke her foot. Barbara Allen
came out on her walker, Candy Greene brought her grandson, who loves the
seals. Karen Turner, who discovered the pup and lives at Turtle Bay, was
an invaluable volunteer watching after the newborn. Dera Look, who was
always an inspiration and supporter for all the volunteers, will always be
missed now that she’s a Mommy and living in other parts.
Ua’Malie’s new life
was relatively uneventful up until she really started feeling more
confident. And then the race was on between this very feisty youngster
and her very experienced Mother. She would find a LOT of fish hooks and
some just had to stay where they pierced because taking out a fish hook with a
momma seal looking on doesn’t happen. She did seem pretty good at getting
rid of them. On day 55, yes 55, we
finally had a weaner. Did I mention that Honey Girl is one of the longest
nursing Mother seals we’ve ever known?
On August 25, 2010
Ua’Malie became an official tagged female seal T10/11. The response volunteers and NOAA team were
there to see about the fish hooks and the tagging. Ua’Malie let it be known (by biting one of
the NWHI guys with experience) she was not fond of the attention or the
people. She was xrayed for stomach hooks
and the one we thought was on her eye turned out to be sea cucumber gook. Just as well she was not enjoying the
attention. Ua’Malie after being woken up
and released after her xray.
Photo Dana Jones
At that time HMSRTO
and the volunteers made a proposal to NOAA/David Schofield that we would look
after her for as long as it took, but to please leave her in her current
spot. This is what made this seal so very
special to all of us that were looking after her. The moving of seals to other locations to
spare the volunteers and get the seals out of harm’s way had not proven to be
very successful. Many would perish in
the first few months after moving them. We
proposed to keep our watches ongoing until she made her way to wherever she was
going to call home.
We looked after
Ua’Malie for the next four months, continuing with 4 shifts each day. It proved to be a wonderful learning
experience for us all, and she stayed safe.
From sunup to sundown volunteers looked after her and trekked all over
when she started swimming farther and farther away from her birth beach.
She would find little
caves out on Kahuku point lava fields.
Fishermen, who got use to seeing us all would tell us where she
was. She would go out foraging and one
fisherman swore he caught a huge Ulua because she scared it into shore. It was quite a big fish and he was very
happy. Ua’Malie made us all very
happy. She was such a feisty and entertaining
girl.
Finally, a couple of
days before Christmas we all decided that since she was now hanging out a few
miles away in a very secluded place that we would cease the “watch”. We could all pat ourselves on the back that
this special seal had made it to 6 months and was a very independent soul that
we would all hike to see from time to time.
Every sighting was a reassurance that we had done the right thing to
keep her in her home.
There are so many
people on this team that kept her safe and reported her whereabouts every
single day. Lesley, Diane, Karen, Kelly,
Melanie, Tony, Joy, Heide, Vera & Crew, the list goes on and on.
Photo Courtesy Kelly Evans
Becoming a Mother
Within 5 years, Ua’Malie
would return to the Keiki Cove to bless us with pups:
6/27/2015 – Holokai,
RG40
Photo Courtesy Carola Johnson
7/9/2016 – Lei Ola,
RH48
Photo Courtesy Barbara Billand
7/17/2017 –
Kahulu’okalae, RJ16
Photo Courtesy of Diane Gabriel
Her last pup, RJ16, before
succumbing to toxoplasmosis last year. This
was a happy time for us all and this is what we would most like to remember. Our love and dedication to this seal has
lasted for over 8 years. She would have
been 9 years old on June 29, 2019. We
all miss her more than anyone can ever know.
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