Every time we climb down the Jacob’s ladder into a small boat, and our coxswain pulls away from the Oscar Elton Sette, I say, “This is my favorite part of the day.” I’ve been on the ship for more than two weeks, but nothing beats being this close to the water just after sunrise. So…
Tag: monk seal
Malama Monk Seal Voyage #7: Lisianski
Heading to our small boat safety briefing, I overheard the Commanding Officer tell our Chief Scientist that a tropical storm was headed for Laysan in the next 48 hours. Laysan: the island we’d most recently departed. The same island on which we’d re-deployed one of our field campers, Carrie, and dropped off two bird biologists…
Malama Monk Seal Voyage #4: Endangered Cargo
It looked like someone had spilled a bottle of glitter on the sky last night. That’s how many stars were twinkling when I stepped onto the aft deck for my “seal watch.” The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands lay in a curved line on a map. You’d think our route would start with the nearest—Nihoa—and follow in…
Malama Monk Seal Voyage #2: Saving a Species One Pup at a Time
We woke to grey skies and a view of the island of Ni`ihau from three miles off shore. Two bottlenose dolphins porpoised off the starboard side of the Oscar Elton Sette while a few inquisitive juvenile brown boobies flew out to investigate us. A gentle rain started right as we launched our first mission of…
Endangered Species Have the Coolest Tongues
Albatross have pointy tongues. Humpback whales have tongues that are the size of Volkswagen bugs. The tips of Hawaiian monk seals’ tongues are bifurcated, a fancy word for split. Pretty cool, huh. And that’s just tongues. Wait until we get to the throats. Today is recognized as Endangered Species Day. The goal of the day…
Help Save Hawaiian Monk Seals.
To celebrate the season, my husband and I made a donation in our friends’ and family’s honor to Ke Kai Ola, also known as the Hawaiian monk seal hospital, in Kona on Hawaii Island. Please see the Marine Mammal Center to learn about the great work they are doing to help young Hawaiian monk seals…
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