December 8, 2019 Monk Seal Dailies

Today's dailies are brought to you by Team Billand, Marilyn, Lesley and Melody.   Lesley's Ka'ena update has includes yesterday and todays' sightings. Guess the send button malfunctioned :-) 

Marilyn was out this afternoon on the eastside and came across R1KT.  Marilyn describes the situation as a real "exercise" in coexistence between humans and seals. The swell had the beach packed with surfers and families. Poor R1KT, ID'd by T37 tag had very little room to move.  He only snorted at one person who accidentally got too close. 


Marilyn viewed Rabbit Island for almost 2 hours today. When she first arrived there were two seal to the left of the 1BS and two seals between the 3BS and Seal Rock Inlet. About an hour later a 3rd seal joined the two near the 1BS. Although Marilyn got some great photos, she wasn't able to make any positive IDs.
Two seals by the 1st Blue Sign:
Unknown Juvenile Female (UJF) juvenile to subadult size, lighter female belly and two tags. 
Unknown Male (UM1) adult size, darker male belly and at least one tag. In one photo it looked like there was a natural bleach on his LFF. Although there were no other distinctive markers for an ID.
At 12:30 an Unknown Unknown UU1 arrived. This was a subadult with a lighter belly and at least one tag. It had a newer coat, moved up closer to the other two seals with a little interaction with UM1.
Two seals by the 3rd Blue Sign
Unknown Unknown #2 UU#2, juvenile size and two tags. The critter never showed it's belly, so she was unable to determine gender.  It was in close proximity to UM2 who was adult size, new coat, male belly and visible tags.  When Marilyn first spotted UM2 (unknown male #2) she thought it might be molting but could not confirm when viewing her photos.


Team Billand had been out early and had done lots of looking until finally at 10:30 they came across RIP RR70 on lower rocks. After he had a sneezing fit he moved to his water hole, twirled around had a good bath and then galumphed back on the lower rocks for the day.  He was alone the entire time.

At 1:20 Team Billand found RL20 Kalua at a west side location, just as they were experiencing withdrawals they came across this cutey. When they arrived there was a family taking a picture of him.

The man commented to Team Billand that they don't get to see seals very often, and that is when Team Billand did their Monk Seal 101. The gentleman said he thought you had to stay 10 feet away and Team Billand corrected him, Robert even went as far as showing them a pamphlet, so they would know what to do the next time.

Team Billand did the Ka'ena West Trek. It was just before 2 in the afternoon when they found Ka'ena sleeping in the water hole peacefully. 
The next critter was RL98 Lina N34. She was hard to see, the was glare from the sun, but after a bit she stretched and they got the tag shot.

After their trek they returned to check on RIP and they hit the jack pot. RIP had company, he was now joined by R3CU and Ka'ale RH32.

Lastly an email from Melody brought news of Rocky's visit. She came late in the afternoon, and by the time Melody got down to see her she also got to enjoy the beautiful sunset.  Security already had been there and put up the signs. Melody stayed with her for about an hour while Rocky rolled around and tucked herself in by the morning glory vines. Melody will check on her in the morning.

 R1KT/T37 N3

 everyone has their little piece of beach

 Rabbit Island UJF - UM and UU

 UJF2 and UU2 

RIP with his crabby friend 

 RL20 Kalua 

Ka'ena

 RL98 #206

R3CU

 R3CU and Ka'ale

ka'ale

Rocky RH58

October 20, 2019 Monk Seal Dailies

Today's dailies are brought to you by Barbara and Marilyn, who teamed up this morning on the west side. 

Heading over to KoOlina they found Pohaku RO28 in a marked off zone with ropes and signs. She is looking good, no new markers, and very alert.  They called the hotline to report.  All her cookie scars were visible and natural bleach on he forehead.

Next find was Ka'ale RH32 at the outfall, the seal was heading out of the area heading in an easterly direction. They took off and found him hauling out at a nearby location and got Ka'ale's positive ID.  He is looking quite robust, healthy, and clean ( of hooks or lines).  He is a very handsome seal and I know Barb was thrilled to see him.

Then Barb & Marilyn went to a west side beach and spotted two seals side by side on mid rocks snoozing. There was Kekoa Alii RK72 and the lovely Kawena RH36.  Kawena is looking very healthy right next to Kekoa.
On another check they were borht still in the same spot together.

On their way to Ka'ena West they stopped and spotted a small young seal on the rocks.  They were able to ID RL20 Kalua hidden between the rocks.  There were several divers entering the water close by, so Marilyn asked if they could give the little guy some room and they made an effort.  RL20 tags were visible. no wounds, no hooks all good.

At Ka'ena West they found RG28 Lefty (Pohaku's son) resting below on the rocks. He has broken tag with G showing, left natural bleached flipper, and cookie scars gave them a positive ID.
He was in the same spot when they left.

After leaving the west side Marilyn stopped at the pier and viewed Rabbit Island for about an hour.
There were two seals on the island.
Unknown Juvenile about 60 feet left of the 1BS. Juvenile size and color, she could not determine the sex or get a view of the tags. If she had to guess it would be weaner RL47.
Next unknown unknown was on the waterfront rocks near SRI.  She guesses it's a sub-adult to adult newer coat, but she was never able to see belly or tags.

While at the pier Marilyn got a text from a UH colleague that there was a seal on the beach close by.
Marilyn was able to get a glimpse of the seal from the pier so she headed over after her Rabbit Island observations.

She suspects based on the seal's sub-adult to small adult size, new coat and location it might be R1KT, but she couldn't see tags, belly or left side for any markers. She waited to see if the seal would change position but it didn't cooperate. Marilyn then decided to change position and from higher up could see the T37 tags and scar above the LFF that confirmed R1KT.

 Pohaku 

 Ka'ale hauling out

 Ka'ale at the outfall 

Kekoa and Kawena

 how cute are these two?

 RL20 Kalua

 RG28 Lefty

 Rabbit Island UJ

 UU 

R1KT