Monk Seal Mania!

I stumbled onto a very cool, Hawai'i blog a few months back by clicking the "Next Blog" link from my own site. It's the daily Hawaiian Monk Seal tallies from a group of volunteers who work closely with NOAA officials. They hit the local beaches every day and record and photograph which monk seals they see, whether hauled out on the sand and natural jetties or swimming near the shore. I've become a big fan and check for updates frequently. They're a passionate, dedicated group of people and I hope to soon be one of them! There is an island-wide, bi-annual Hawaiian Monk Seal Count on Oahu in a few weeks, and I've signed up to help on the Leeward side.
Here's the group's mission statement: "We maintain and train volunteers to assist federal, state, and non-governmental organizations in responding to Hawaiian Monk Seal "haul-outs", pupping events, and injuries. Anything we can do to assist in the recovery of the Hawaiian Monk Seal!"
Please check them out here: http://www.hmsrto.org/
Here's the site I found that started it all: http://monksealmania.blogspot.com/
And here's a sister-blog from a blogger who shares his sitings and photos with the Monk Seal Mania site: http://northshoremonks.blogspot.com/
The picture alongside this post is from last month on Kauai. We stayed at a property on Poipu Beach and were lucky to see one, sometimes two, monk seals hauled out on the beach each day. It's an iPhone pic and not very close, but you can still make out a patch on his back. I think at one point he/she had a transmitter attached.