Oh yea, I still do wildlife work, too.

Last September I completed a 3rd season with NOAA's Monk Seal Population Assessment Study in the NWHI, as a camp leader on Laysan Island. (Check out older posts) On our way down the island chain, we stopped at a few hotspots that do not get surveyed often for seals and weaned pups.

Necker or Mokumanamana is a rocky island in between the Main Hawaiian Islands (MHI) and the NW Hawaiian Islands (NWHI). It is very small and composed of basalt rock ledges. It is still a relatively high island. There are no beaches for the monk seals, so they end up hauling out on the rocks, much different from the NWHI. Mokumanamana is known for its plentiful religious heiau and artifacts - meaning that it is a very sacred place to Native Hawaiians, and likely used for many ceremonies. A very interesting fact is that the island lies directly on the Tropic of Cancer and during summer solstice, the sun is at its peak for the longest over this island. A few field campers were lucky enough to go onto the island and do a survey and tag the weaned pups - my 2nd time to go, yay!

 Ray and Darren on the small boat, cruisin' around the island.

Rocky cliffs:

Nihoa Island is about 240km NW of Kauai, another jagged, rocky island where seals haul out. There is only 1 beach and that is of course the popular spot to find seals, especially the moms and pups. This year I got to go on the ledge to check out the few seals there:

Limpets, or in Hawaiian Opihi:

A really neat cave that the boat drivers usually take us in:

And, a blast from the past - the 2009 Laysan Monk Seal Team! Can't wait to see who the 2012 team will be!