This has been a great seal week -- Some of the seals had a romantic Valentines Day (really!), and we are seeing lots of nice, fat females. Nice fat females means
nice fat babies, and enough fat for the moms to feed them throughout weaning. (The moms don't eat from the time they give birth, until after they wean, so lots of body fat is essential.) Go fat seals!
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| This nice fat momma seal is 18 years old, and has had 7 pups so far. Go Momma! |
It has been rain, rain, rain for quite a while now -- so we race out for a quick snorkel whenever possible.
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| Little toby guards his junk. |
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| White-tipped reef shark at a distance. |
We also had some water-based training with the Miller board. This type of safety practice is very useful in figuring out what we can and cannot do - and so we all feel more comfortable handling this equipment when we actually need to evacuate a hurt or unconscious person in the water.
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| Water-based Miller board practice. FWS Volunteers (clockwise) Kristina Dickson, Melinda Conners, Dan Rapp, and James Macaulay move scenario victim Sarah Youngren safety through the water towards shore. La Perouse is visible in the background. |
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| Oops! Kinda got that one backwards.... Now her head is down... Important lesson that we won't forget next time! |
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| A successful rescue!! Kristina (in wetsuit) demonstrates the proper way to lift, while the others demonstrate improper lifting technique. Way to go, Team! :-) |
And last but not least... the Photo of the Week:
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| Joy on the runway. Dan Rapp expresses his enthusiasm. Photo by Sarah Youngren. |
Hey Guys,
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed the blog post. Pictures are wonderful. That is one big momma seal. We wish her our best with her offspring that they are healthy, playful and curious. Good job on the life saving training too. Always good to keep those skills sharp. Watch out for the man-of-war and other stinging jelly fish. Seems I got some poison oak and it sucks. Looking forward to your next post.