Last week, PK3 received her permanent flipper tags. She now sports the tags M28 (a nod to her mother RK28) and M29 on her left and right rear flippers. (The photos above were taken pre-tagging by J. Thomton.)
PK1 (bleach-marked V00) and PK2 (bleach-marked V02) will be tagged when an opportunity presents itself–if they are found in safely catchable locations. Meanwhile, their bleach marks will remain until their first molt (somewhere around one year of age), so there’s still plenty of time to get them tagged, as well.
Last week, a new-to-Kauai seal appeared on the north shore sporting black flipper tags with the characters H00. (Kind of appropriate for the pending holiday season.) Thanks to a large database of all identified seals throughout the Hawaiian Island archipelago (maintained by NOAA), the seal was identified as one that was first tagged on Niihau as a weaned pup in 2016. She’s been seen every year since on Niihau. This is her first sighting outside Niihau. (Seals flipper-tagged on Niihau are given black-with-white-lettering tags.) (Photos by M. Olry.)
Here’s a photo of her as a weaned pup.
Kaua'i Seals 