January 12, 2026 Monday's Dailies

Todays dailies are brought to you by Connie (wildlife lover from Indiana) and Team R&B  💕

I got an email last night from Connie visiting from Indiana. She was kind enough to share some photos of seal she spotted out near Kahuku Point. She couldn't get a clear pictures of its tag. Looks like a juvenile, maybe one of the 2025 kids.

Team R&B started their day with beautiful rainbows. It had rained,

choppy seas, and windy, not ideal day for finding seals.

Then finally spotted a seal at electric beach. It was RH32 Kaale hauling up on shore. At first he was there unbothered by anyone. But then things changed and people arrived.

Over by the outfall they spotted a couple of seals foraging. It was hard to capture all the seals, let alone ID them, since the water was so choppy, windy and rainy. They were able to get a couple of IDs; one was RL08 and the other was RG32 with his beautiful applied bleach number.

They also spotted RL12 Aukai out there foraging.

There were no whales, no dolphins, no turtles and only two people dared to go into the water for a short time. The waves were pounding.

They hit the other usual spots, same results, nothing seen. When the rain stopped but the waves got bigger.

Unknown Juvenile

Rainbow

RH32

RL08

RG32

RL12

Waves

04/25/2020 Stay-At-Home (33) Thinking About Honey Girl

Aloha Good People

I am still feeling the emotions over this loss and after reading many of the social media post so are many others.  One thing for sure is Honey Girl R5AY touched many people here on Oahu, from professionals, volunteers, neighbors, and the folks at Turtle Bay Resort.  Honey Girl was pretty consistent in hauling out in certain spots on Oahu which made her part of the North Shore neighborhood. Then over the years giving birth, usually on North Shore and many times at Turtle Bay.

I am sure in days to follow there will be many stories, and photos to honor her and many of her off spring.  But tonight I want to give a shout out to a few of the MANY MANY people who watched over her through out the years.  Some of these folks have been around long before there was any organized volunteer group, they did it and continue to do it because, well.... they got really big hearts and some of the best folks I have ever met.

It goes without saying that our beloved DB was very much a part of R5AYs life.... but there were so many more. 
Kathy and Jim Brown were around when Honey Girl gave birth to Penelope back in 2006.  They did such an amazing job even back then documenting details about the size and interactions of mom and pup.  We also have Kathy to thank for developing an educational curriculum that has been used to education so many of Hawaii's children.
John Johnston, Ella & Dave Siroskey, Joanne Tabor, Karen Harris were some of the folks from the early early days looking after her. 
I got involved in 2008 and Honey Girl was my first official pup watch. Oh those days, it was truly grass roots, scrambling to create some level of organized shifts and consistent information. In those days NOAA managed the whole event.  Team Billand, Dana Jones, Lesley McPherson, Karen Banes, Jan Williamson, Liz Weske, Jennifer & Rafe Maldenado, Karen Bryant, Diane Gabriel, Karen Rohter, were some of the folks involved in that seasons pupping events. In 2008 when Honey Girl gave birth at Crawfords beach, KC gave birth about a week later at Mokuleia. 
This made for interesting times, for a bunch of "volunteers" who didn't have anything in common other than watching over these mom and pups. As a result,  a group of us got together and created Oahu's first organized volunteer group by setting up a non-profit.
As the years went on, folks like Karen Turner, Jeannie Martinson, Kelly Girl, Don Porter and so many more got involved when Honey Girl decided to make the Keiki Pool at turtle bay her favorite birthing spot. 
A BIG shout out to the staff, including security at Turtle Bay who were always supportive of the volunteers, as well as keeping an eye out for our girl.

I apologize if I have left anyone out, that is not my intent.... I truly know we were all in it together and we all feel the loss of this amazing female who taught us so much about Hawaiian monk seals, mother nature in the wild, and how precious life is to all critters.

AND last but not least to all the posse that through out the years, had an opportunity to meet her while snoozing on the north shore, or maybe meeting one of her kids.

THANK YOU ALL for the years and genuine caring for each other and our beloved monk seals.

December 30, 2019 Monk Seal Dailies

Today's dailies are brought to you by Team Billand, Melody and me. 

I made a quick stop in Waimanalo this afternoon on my way home from Honolulu.  I set up the scope and there was only one critter on island. I was hoping in the hour and a half I was there I would see more, but there was only one, which is better than none.
I believe this critter to be a female, juvenile size. She was laying on her right side when I arrived in front of the 3BS.  She eventually rolled onto her belly when I could see the orange on her hind flippers indicating she had tags. 

Melody sent email that yesterday she and Dana alone with Tony, Stephanie and Diana went up to the north shore to look for seals, but to also spread some positive energy out on the beaches. With all the hardship, spreading some good seal karma, cleansing with some sage, sprinkle of holy water can only help. They got to see some nesting Albatross, and they even got a visit with Sadie on their way home.

This morning Melody was out photographing the sunrise, when security found her to let her know of a seal at the other end of the beach. When Melody got there she knew it was Rocky by her NB on her LFF.  She was by the morning glory and security had already put signs up. Melody reported to the hotline and then set herself up for what turned out to be most of the day.  There were some visitors who came by and Melody was joined by Diana of HMSPO.  Finally after rolling her way down to the water Rocky headed out to get herself some food. Melody included a video so please enjoy the show.

Team Billand had another busy day. When they first headed out this morning they didn't see any seals, just large surf. Then they heard a snort. It was Kekoa Alii RK72 trying to haul in with the waves pushing him about. He managed to on lower rocks, but the waves kept pushing.  Then there was another snort from a different direction.
There was RW02 PvKauai behind the rock, they never saw him come in, in fact he may have been there all along. Both seals kept checking each other out.  Then Kekoa got blasted by a way and was washed out.  They spotted him foraging off shore. 

RW02 got tossed about five minutes after Kekoa, he left and they were both seen off shore. While watching the boys Team Billand could see there were multiple seal out there.  They left at 10:30 to answer a call from Paradise Cove. 

Team Billand arrived at the site at 10:40 and were shocked to see how many people were out there on the shore. There was Kolohe RW22 with just some signs around him. Team Billand heard from Auntie explained that some good folks knew where the signs were and put them up, there were no ropes.  A volunteer was there educating people, but it's hard with that many people. So many people going back and forth with their little children, boogie boards, tourists etc.  Volunteer Melina arrived and immediately made the zone larger.  Team Billand left knowing Kolohe was in good hands with Melina.

Team Billand returned back to see if any of the foraging critters had landed. When they returned to the west side site they found RIP RR70 on a small sand patch, Kekoa and RW02 were next to each other on lower rocks, and RH36 Kawena was with R3CX.  Team Billand initially through this seal was R3CU, but viewing the tag shot they realized it was not.  Team Billand immediately contacted the monk seal grapevine and found out this is a NEW seal to Oahu, seen other day. Turns out R3CX is five years old (2014) and was tagged on March 2015 on Kauai.

 Rabbit Island J/F

Sadie RB12

 Albatross Love

 Rocky RH58

Kekoa 

 Kekoa and RW02 

 RW02 PvKauai

Kolohe @ Paradisc Cove

Kawena

 Kawena and R3CX

 R3CX

 RIP

 RW02 PvKauai