Seals!

Well, this week’s Do Something New – going on a monk seal quest early this morning. Monk seals were found. My contribution was leaving my real camera at home. Took only the cheap underwater Olympus. All of today’s photos are with that camera. 

Apparently monk seals do three things. Look for food. Eat food. And sleep. The larger one was in the water. 

She swam over to look at us and soon swam out into the open ocean. Looking for food, I guess. 

These monk seals are endemic to our islands and there are only 1,000 or so left on the planet. Most of them wisely hang out on our uninhabited northern islands. Yes, there are many more than the 8 Hawaiian Islands that you many have heard of… Depending on who is doing the counting there are 132 – 159 islands in the fine state of Hawai’i. The Island of Hawai’i – AKA The Big Island is the largest and southeastern most. This is where I live. Kure Atoll is the most northwestern land mass. It is less than 200 acres and was once a LORAN station. Now it is a favorite resting place for monk seals.

No swimming today. Boat day. And, the ocean is just too busy. Also, I need to give my aged body a little recovery time. So, just walk and yoga today.

While walking home from breakfast – I decided to try my underwater camera out on the “Hong Kong Orchid Tree”

I was rather pleased with the job it did. I might have to take this camera back east with me. Rather than leaving it in storage here for next year. I never leave anything here that I really like. I bring my wetsuit and mask home to the mainland, but leave my fins here. Most of my clothes stay here. None of my technology stays here. 

Time to think about going home in a six weeks or so… Directly? Take the train across country again? Travel home by going west? The earth is round. That will work.