Capturing the Moment

   Hawaiian Monk Seals are critically endangered, with a population hovering around 2,000. They can only be found in the Hawaiian island change, with most of them in the unpopulated Northwest Hawaiian Islands. About 200 closely watched, tagged, and recorded individuals call the main Hawaiian Islands home, which means encounters are highly unlikely. In fact if you do see one there is a special hotline to call to report your sighting. NOAA heads up the protection and recording of monk seal sightings, so if you do get the lucky chance to encounter one you can find the phone number to report it on the NOAA monk seal page here . Monk Seal Large Format Picture I have been lucky enough to see several monk seals over the years with a couple of encounters being in the water while diving or snorkeling. It is always such a rare treat to even catch a glimpse of these rare creatures. So you can imagine my surprise when I am leading about twenty snorkelers in a rarely visited spot on ...

View from the Bridge  The adventure is underway. Our first stop on our Northbound to Alaska is a quick town stop in the San Juan Islands. Friday Harbor is a quaint village nestled on San Juan Island. Even though it is the commercial center of the islands the description of "bustling" would be a bit of an overstatement. Boats of all kinds are tied up in the harbor and big ferries come in every few hours. A statue of a seal named "Popeye" overlooks the harbor at the end of the docks and the actual seal Popeye still haunts the harbor on a daily basis. She awaits food handed to her from the nearby seafood stall. Popeye lost her eye many years ago but hasn't let that stop her from having ten different pups! Popeye Friday Harbor   We had the morning to walk around so I was able to snap a few pictures of the beautiful town. I also picked up some local beer from the Island Hoppin Brewery to do a special beer tasting on our Northbound since we only h...

There have been very few times when I have been out in nature where an animal is big enough not to be scared of me and curious enough to stick around to check me out. This time it happened to me with a very rare endemic Hawaiian Monk Seal. Population estimates put the total number of Hawaiian Monk Seals below 2,000 individuals...in the world. However when compared to the other 2 species of known monk seals this paltry number sounds a little more hopeful. There are about 600 Mediterranean Monk Seals and 0 Caribbean Monk Seals. The last sighting of a Caribbean Monk Seal was in 1952 and was officially declared extinct in 2008 after a 5 year exhaustive search came up empty.    Conservation efforts have been put into effect for both of the remaining species of Monk Seals. Out here in Hawaii NOAA heads up the effort with a Monk Seal specialist on each island as well as a network of volunteers. Sharks are the biggest natural predator of these seals although some fishermen target ...