Monk Seal Monday #139: Not One but Two Welcome Bits of Good News!

Welcome KP3.

The well known female RK28 gave birth to the third Kauai pup of the year last Thursday. This pup will be known as KP3 until it is eventually flipper tagged. This is RK28’s fourth consecutive year to pup in the same location at a remote beach on the north shore. Her previous pups are:

• 2018: RKA4 – male
• 2019: RL28 – female
• 2020: RM28 – female
  

RK28 is the mother who lost her two-week old pup in a 2014 dog attack. We suspect she pupped elsewhere for a few years after this incident before returning to Kauai in 2018 to resume pupping.

Similar to the previous pup events in 2020 and 2021, our pup monitoring efforts will be curtailed due to COVID-19, however we are still hoping to conduct daily monitoring checks that focus on adjusting signs, assessing the health of the pair, and taking photos. Outreach to beach users is not the objective, and fortunately the location is remote with just a few people on the beach day. Those interested in assisting with the daily checks should call 808-651-7668. 

These rules may change as DLNR adjusts volunteer protocols due to the current spike in COVID cases.

PC: M. Olry

PC: M. Olry

PC: M. Olry

RK58 Sighting.

Finally, after four-and-a-half months, subadult male seal RK58 was re-sighted! Earlier this year, K58 spent six weeks at Ke Kai Ola, the Monk Seal Hospital, on Hawaii Island due to injuries sustained in a suspected dog attack that resulted in significant weight loss and infected puncture wounds. After treatment, K58 was flown back to Kauai, released on March 26, and not known to have been seen since. That is, until August 11th when a visitor–George–saw K58 and took this photo. George went home, checked out our website, saw the history of K58, and realized he had made a very important discovery: K58 is alive and well. Thanks, George! And thank goodness for readable field tags on those rear flippers!

PC: G. Egbert

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Field Report: April 2021

Update: The Kauai team logged 155 seal sightings this month. This included 31 individually identified seals.

• April 155
• March: 137
• February: 119
• January: 125
• December: 119
• November: 133
• October: 152
• September: 152
• August: 198
• July: 120
• June: 81
• May: 147
• April: 117

New:

• Flipper tagged a new yearling seal likely from Niihau. New ID is R2XW. 
  
• Flipper tagged 2020 pup PK1 as RM36. 
  
• RB00 pupped on north shore beach. Pup KP1 is thriving.
  
• 3-year-old male R1NI washed ashore dead at west side. Carcass was fresh code 2, collected and frozen on Kauai, then shipped to Oahu for necropsy. 
  
• Return of visitors with Kauai entering Safe Travels Program causing increased disturbance to seals at Poipu. More signs put at racks at Poipu beach park to manage SRA without ropes and volunteers deployed.
  

Updates:

• Subadult male seal RK58 was returned from KKO after 6 weeks of rehab and released at on March 26. He was treated at KKO for likely dog attack injuries that resulted in significant weight loss and infected puncture wounds.
  
• Due to COVID-19 stay-at-home measures, our new methods of monitoring continue, which include:
  • Weekly surveys of key areas conducted by staff
  • DAR staff conducting weekly island wide Creel Surveys
  • PMRF staff continuing to send in routine reports and photos
  • Requesting that people who call the hotline to report seals assist us by sending several photos and setting-up SRA signs or sticks. 

Morbillivirus Vaccination: RM28 received the initial vaccine this month.

Volunteers: 

• Volunteer program remains on hold due to COVID-19.
  

Research/Support of PIFSC:

• Sub-sampled scat, molt, and tissue plug samples accordingly.
  
• Logged all seal sightings for PIFSC database. Organized photos and reported sightings, molt tallies, survival factors to send to PIFSC.

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Monk Seal Monday #127: Cookie Cutter Shark Wounds

[CONTENT WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES.]

This weekend, several people called the hotline to report a monk seal with a gnarly wound. Turns out, it was eight-month-old RM28, born to RK28 last August. The wound was a what remained after a cookiecutter shark latched onto RM28, swiveled, and took off with a plug of flesh.

Thankfully, Hawaiian monk seals have an amazing ability to heal wounds such as these through a process called “tissue granulation,” and already, RM28’s wound is starting to heal around the edges.

PC: J. Thomton

The most common shark encounters that monk seals have is with cookiecutters. Almost all Hawaiian monk seals have scars that were inflicted by cookiecutter sharks. But the wounds heal quickly, as this one will, and might one day be almost impossible to see.

The cookiecutter shark, also called a cigar shark, isn’t the most photogenic.

PC: NOAA

The species can be found in warm, oceanic waters worldwide. Its common name comes from the cookie-cutter-like wounds it leaves in its prey. This small shark grows 16 to 22 inches in length. It lives at depths of 3,200 feet during the day but moves up the water column at night to feed, which it does by using its suction cup-like lips to lock onto its prey. Then, it spins its body, using the row of serrated teeth on its lower jaw to remove a plug of flesh, leaving behind crater-like wounds that are two inches across and approximately two-and-a-half inches deep.

One of the more interesting characteristics of cookiecutter sharks is they glow bluish-green, because its underside is bioluminescent. But cookiecutters also have a non-luminescent band to deceive its predators into thinking it’s smaller than it really is. When its predator moves in, the cookiecutter shark goes on the offensive, snagging a hunk of flesh for its meal. They are considered parasites.

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Monk Seal Monday #117: 2020 In Review

Here are some year-end stats. Like everything for 2020, remember that these numbers are greatly influenced due to COVID-19, which paused the Kauai Hawaiian Monk Seal Conservation Hui’s volunteer program.

Grand sightings total: 

• 2,005 or 5.5/day monk seal sightings on Kauai in 2020.
• 3,154 or 8.9/day in 2019.
• 3,253 or 8.9/day in 2018.
• 3,621 or 9.9/day in 2017.
• 3,236 or 8.9/day in 2016.
• 3,321 or 9.1/day in 2015.
• 2,516 or 6.9/day in 2014.

Kauai population: 

• 67 unique individual seals sighted on Kauai in 2020.
• 67 in 2019.
• 60 in 2018.
• 60 in 2017.
• 56 in 2016.
• 53 in 2015.
• 47 in 2014.

Births: 3 total born on Kauai in 2020.

• V00 (bleach-marked) born to RB00 in March.
• V02 (bleach-marked) born RH58 to in August.
• RM28 (flipper-tagged) born to RK28 in August.

Mortalities: 6 confirmed mortalities in 2020.

• R313 and fetus: adult female with near full term fetus, necropsy pending.
• RJ36: 3-year-old male, hook ingestion, necropsy pending.
• RKA6: 2-year old female, mummified condition, cause of death unknown.
• RL52: 1-year-old male, necropsy pending, case under investigation.
• Weaned female pup, ID unknown, necropsy pending, case under investigation.
• Subadult seal, sex and ID unknown, mummified condition, cause of death unknown, case under investigation.

Niihau Seals (likely): sighted a minimum of 8 new seals in 2020, but likely more as several new untagged seals had no markings or scars so no temporary IDs were given.

• 8 in 2020.
• 5 in 2019.
• 9 in 2018.
• 12 in 2017.
• 6 in 2016.
• 14 in 2015.

Displacements: 4 total displacements occurred.

• 3 displacements from unsafe or unsuitable locations (boat ramps, beach roads, sidewalks, etc).
• 1 displacements from the Poipu keiki pool. 

Vaccination for morbillivirus efforts: 

Due to COVID-19, fieldwork was minimal and no seals were vaccinated. Plans are in place to resume vaccinations in 2021.

Bleach marking effort: 

6 bleach marks were applied.

Stranding Responses in 2020: 

One monk seal stranding response and 6 carcass retrievals:

• RK13 – gillnet wrapped around muzzle was removed with a pole mounted cutting tool. 

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Monk Seal Monday #115: Meet RM28 and NH00.

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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.

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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.

Photo credit: NOAA.

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