A cool visitor....

[Hee_Haw]

I was doing my Saturday thing with my family when the NEXTEL went off.

"Can you do me a favor Kyle?"... was my friend, Captain Clay.

"We picked up a couple donkeys... can I get some ice? Oh yeah, and you going have sashimi for tonight, he he. I'll be docked in 15 minutes."

"Shoots! See you at the dock!" I said.

His charter is a regular; this guy comes from New York with his wife, and all he likes to do is whip for ulua (my kind of fisherman). He brings all his own gear for whipping, and seems every February they come down for two weeks; one week Molokai, one week Kona, and all they do is FISH.

Clay was falling behind schedule because of the fish, and past the dissection and filleting of the monster (and the crowds that come, some to gawk, some to see if they could score a piece of fish), he had an "ash scattering" for a deceased client's family within the hour; I figured to help him get his charter taken care of, help him clean up some, and take a few pictures, I hung around and brought the family.

"Eh, try look around, one monk seal was swimming around the harbor", Captain Clay said.

Then he told my daughter, "Eh Sarah, no go too close by the rocks by yourself if you see it, 'kay?"

I wondered, "Whazup wid dat? What, the seal going come up the stairs or something?"

And lo and behold, there he was, swimming between the parked boats, looking at everyone. The docks are like 4 feet from the water, so it wasn't like it was going to fly or anything.

But then, he began to swim toward the rock wall/breakwater.



He swam and crawled on the reef shelf, and plopped himself on the rocks! Wow!



Boing boing boing! Wow! He DID come up the wall!



Plop. Just like that. Now I know why Clay told Sarah don't go if she saw the seal. She was right there a few minutes earlier.

If you can see the back of the seal, he's got a transponder and antennas on his back. He's a local-born seal (in captivity), from Kauai, and he's apparently not shy of humans. We got on the horn with NOAA and Uncle "Stretch" (who owns a sampan and lives at the harbor) volunteered to stand guard until the officials could rope off the place and keep everyone away 300 feet (as is federal law). He said it's the second visit this week, normally the seal stays way on the East end of the island, but not sure why he's hangin' round the harbor.

They're cute, but they are semi-wild animals, and it did snap at some idiots who were poking at the seal the week earlier, according to Uncle Stretch. The NOAA guys actually just keep someone at the rope-off area until the seal (I think his name was K-2-something) heads off, or from what they said, they might have to catch him and fly him off to another undisclosed location.

It was pretty neat.

Oh, yeah, and the fish. I wonder if it was the one that broke my lure two weeks ago.



49.7 to be exact. It sure looked a LOT heavier. The 33 pounder was still in the cooler and looked way smaller. Oh well, they were way bigger than the ones we hooked up couple weeks ago. And it was this guy's cheapie 4 dollar lures that he left behind last year that I used to catch my two uluas.

What great memories.

[MLE]

Those are great pics of the monk seal, Kyle! I've only a couple of them around here on Oahu. Once at Waikiki Beach and once in the Pearl Harbor Channel. They are the neatest things to see and watch!

[Pj Benn]

nice

[tomuse]

wow, molokai is looking more distinct!

[lois]

meannnn the fish.

[idiosyncratic]

nice! mahalo for sharing da pics!

**
i wish i could do like the Capt
just go fishing for two weeks!