Aloha from the Monk Seal Conservation Hui!
Well, we're getting geared up for our Third Semi-annual monk seal count on April 19 (see the attached flyer). In the last few months volunteers and I have been following 3 pregnant seals (K13, K30 and K34, due dates unknown!) One of those seals, K30, who has the entanglement scars around her neck and big shark bite scar on her left side, was also seen last month with a small hook stuck in the left corner of her mouth (hopefully we'll sight her and find out she's pulled it out on her own).
Also, our Maha'ulepu pup, B24, has decided to hang out on the east coast now. She gave us an awful scare a few weeks ago by getting entangled in some net debris just after leaving volunteers Nancy and Ron Koczaja, who had faithfully been watching her all day long behind the Wailua golf course. Fortunately she freed herself, but we didn't find that out until spending the evening until dark and all the next day looking for her, worried sick she'd drowned (her aunties and uncles have alot more grey hair...including volunteers, Mary and Barry Werthwine who'd witnessed her get attacked by a dog also)!!
A little juvenile, untagged male (smaller than B24 or 'Haupu') was just discovered also last month among some lava rocks at Larsen's beach...so be careful, cause he's hard to see! He snorted and sneezed when I first saw him...he's quite shy, and I suspect he was born on Ni'ihau.
K03, just finished molting and was looking quite dapper, now that he's lost his 'green sports coat'..(thickest coat of algae I've ever seen)! Unfortunately, after his molting fast, his deep diving foraging forays to put weight back on, left him bitten by a cookie cutter shark. The shark didn't get his bite, and K03 has an ugly, tag of of skin and a big hole on his side!! So, if you're counting seals on the south or west side, you're most likely to see him!
I am also attaching the sighting form to be printed and filled out. Following this you will find attached an excel sheet with the various numbered locations, and the site leaders from last October's count. There will be some changes, so, site leaders please email me back soon, to let me know if you will be participating, so I can set up the new schedule and make sure you have ample sighting report forms.
Also, all volunteers, let me know where you'd like to do the count and if you have friends that would like to join in. Hopefully we can recruit more people to cover all of Kauai's coasts to make a good census of the seals! Remember too, last April's seal counters were the first to discover 2007's first pup, only hours old! So this can be a real exciting time of the year to look for seals and watch our wonderful wildlife along Kauai's coasts.
Especially for those who have not participated before, a training meeting is planned at the Lihue Library on April 8 from 7-8:30pm. We'll cover information about the seals, how to do the count and assigning coast sections to be cover from 10 to 1 on April 19 (also hopefully to be declared the state's Hawaiian Monk Seal Day)! ALSO remember, anytime you see a monk seal call the hotline number, 651-7668, so we can prevent any disturbances to the seal and protect the public, by roping it off in a 'SPZ' (seal protection zone) if needed.