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View From Here - Hawaii Travel Blog - Hawaiian Monk Seal

Welcome to View from Here, a travel blog, where I write about living in, traveling about and experiencing Hawaii as a malihini, a 12-year-resident of the Hawaiian Islands. My name is Kim Steutermann Rogers, and you're likely to find blog posts here about food--who doesn't like to eat?--and outdoor adventure. Like hiking through Haleakala on Maui. Diving with manta rays off Hawaii (Big) Island. Snorkeling Shark's Cove on Oahu. And paddling Napali Coast of my home island, Kauai. Not that I'm some, young, adrenaline junkie. Those days are long over. I just enjoy collecting life experiences. And that's why you probably won't find much in the way of shopping here, unless it's about a fantastic, locally-made product--like soap--and the charming, young, single-mother who makes it. Then, I gush on and on. Oh, as a warning, I can sometimes jump on my soap box and write about the realities of marine debris, Hawaii's endangered species--like humpback whales and Hawaiian monk seals--great book discoveries and the wonders of nature. And my dogs.

Total Number of Entries - 59

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Hooking More Than Just Fish. Hawaiian Monk Seals At Risk.

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Mon 2/18/2013

Destination: Kauai

“Are you on island?” she asked. She knows I travel around the Hawaiian archipelago and cannot always respond to her requests. As it turned out, I was not only on Kauai, but I was above the very beach a male Hawaiian monk seal needed help. I knew this monk seal, flipper-tagged T12, and born three years ago to a regular, productive mother, known as Rocky. The juvenile seal had recently molted, and sported a beautifully, clean coat of silvery-grey and milky-white stomach.
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Odyssey of a Hawaiian Monk Seal and a Volunteer in Waikiki

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Wed 10/24/2012

Destination: Oahu

The sky above Diamond Head had just started to pink when I hit Kalakaua Avenue for my morning walk. I wasn't alone. Surfers bobbed on the waters off Waikiki Beach, which, I quickly noticed, rippled with a late-season south swell. Dogs had hit the streets, too. One particular chocolate Lab strained at its leash, its head cranked toward the ocean, yearning and excitement oozing from its whole body. On the beach, a group of Japanese soccer players ran drills. Another man was inventing a new form of stretching exercise.
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A Beautiful Hawaiian Monk Seal at Keauhou

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Wed 9/26/2012

Destination: Hawaii Island

There’s a big, fat Hawaiian monk seal asleep in the tide pools outside Keauhou Beach Resort right now. I spotted her when I checked into my room and—like I always do first-thing—yanked open the curtains to check out the view. The female seal sleeps on a rock a few hundred feet away from a huge heiau, making me think how Hawaiian monk seals bridge time.
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Whatever Happened to Kolohe the Monk Seal?

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Wed 7/11/2012

Destination: Kauai

A couple months ago, one rascally Hawaiian monk seal appeared on a Kauai beach with extra baggage. That is, a giant ulua hook. The fish hook had lodged deep in the monk seal's throat and veterinarians decided the wily buggah wouldn’t take kindly to them digging in his throat to remove it. So, they flew him to Oahu to perform the procedure in a controlled environment. He spent nearly two weeks there but was eventually flown back to Kauai and released on a south shore beach.
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May in Photos

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Mon 6/4/2012

Destination: Kauai, Oahu

May was busy but the photos may not show it. The month started with a tour of Otsuji Farms on Oahu. The farm got its start in 1954, and the city sorta grew up around it, so now you could call it an urban farm. It’s a three-generation farm. The middle generation still makes sure the place runs. Edwin, wearing his signature Crocodile-Dundee-hat, led the tour.
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The De-Hooking of an Hawaiian Monk Seal Called Kolohe

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Thu 5/24/2012

Destination: Kauai

When the plane finally came to a reverberating rest, and the pilot shut off its propeller engines,the Hawaiian monk seal known as Kolohe was home. But not even an endangered monk seal is immune to flight delays. Engine trouble had pushed Kolohe’s arrival in Lihue back three hours.
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There is Hope for Hawaiian Monk Seals

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Fri 5/4/2012

Destination: Kauai

Four years ago this week, a young Hawaiian monk seal gave birth to a healthy, little pup on a remote beach on Kauai’s North Shore. Sadly, the new mother showed absolutely no interest in her pup. She didn’t nuzzle it. She didn’t present her teats for nursing. It wasn’t the first time she had turned away from her offspring. This same female had birthed in very nearly the same spot the year before with the same result—she abandoned her pup.
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April in Photos

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Wed 5/2/2012

For me, April saw the breeding plumage of Golden plovers come in. A visit to The Contemporary Museum, now called Spalding House, on Oahu. An afternoon meditation at Broken Ridge Buddhist Temple--in advance of a talk by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. A hike on Manoa Cliff Trail off Round Top Drive in Honolulu, Oahu. An architectural tour of Chinatown. Wedge-tailed shearwaters clean up their burrows and pair up in advance of laying some eggs. The birth of two Hawaiian monk seal pups.
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Bifurcated Tongues and Hawaiian Monk Seals

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Thu 1/5/2012

Destination: Kauai

I woke this morning dreaming that I was driving north from Kapa’a up the rise on the highway just past Kealia. Two days ago, a bunch of cars and trucks were parked along this stretch of Kauai’s coastal highway. Surfers. Yesterday, as I drove home from Lihue, I glanced makai (toward the ocean) at just the right moment and saw a whale breach. This is life in Hawaii in the winter.
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A Humpback Whale Visit on Endangered Species Day

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Sat 5/21/2011

Destination: Kauai

At exactly 3:53 p.m. at Kauai's Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge on Friday, May 20, I heard a woman's voice exclaim, "There's a spinner dolphin." I remember thinking that I hadn't see any earlier in the sandy-bottomed waters off Kauapea Beach. Maybe, I thought--it's really amazing how fast thoughts can whiz through your mind--maybe it's a pod coming from the bay around the point--Kalihiwai--and headed out to sea for a night of foraging. I've seen them rest there during the day before, too.
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