PO’IPU — Well, it was a good idea when they built it.
But high surf that hammered the south shores of the Hawaiian Islands Wednesday took out the temporary pathway designed to keep humans from the new Hawaiian monk seal family.
The pathway, erected by crew members of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries volunteers under the direction of Dr. Mimi Olry, the Kaua’i marine-conservation officer, was under two feet of sand Thursday, following a high-tide surge.
A French videographer who is on Kaua’i filming the new monk seal pup said he was working from behind the blind when a big wave sent the blinds crashing around him and his equipment.
Olry said she attempted to redo the downed blinds and pathway barrier, but the high surf had driven the mother seal and her pup close to the vegetation line.
“It was real spooky,” she said. “At first, we thought her eyesight wasn’t that good, because she was ignoring all the passers-by that used the pathway. But, when I got to where she was, she looked at me and started doing all those growly barks.”
Olry said the pathway will be left in its present condition until the surf subsides. However, she added that, even if the surf goes down, the blinds and posts will have to be dug out, and that task cannot happen until the seals retreat farther away.
Currently, visitors attempting to use the temporary walkway are met with a “Pathway closed due to high surf” notice, with NOAA Fisheries volunteers also on hand to enforce the closure.
Olry added that the surf not only affected the baby monk seal and mother.
On Wednesday, she was summoned to PK’s (a surf break named for Prince Kuhio at Kukui’ula), where a Hawaiian monk seal had come up on the road to escape the high surf that, at that point, was also breaking across Lawa’i Road.
“I had to shoosh it back into the water,” she said. “She was really tired, but with all the traffic from people coming down to watch the surf, it was all I could do.”
Earlier, the rising south swell Tuesday posed another challenge for volunteers keeping 24-hour surveillance on the 14-day-old Hawaiian monk seal pup and his mother — surfers.
Olry and her crew of volunteers were kept busy Tuesday afternoon, as the rising south swell attracted a large number of wave-riders trying to get in as many rides on the rising swell before the sun set.
That, combined with the fact that the pup is now developing his swimming skills under the close scrutiny of his mother and human volunteers keeping watch from shore, complicated the volunteers’ tasks, she said.
On Tuesday, the seals took to the water on two occasions. It is during this time that the protective mother may become very aggressive toward any animal, human or otherwise, who might be perceived as a threat to mother or pup.
The late-evening swim created the most concern for Olry and her volunteer crew, as school was over, and a lot of students were in the water.
Mom and pup lazed and bobbed in the swell, moving closer to the rock outcropping located at the west end of the beach near Marriott’s Waiohai Beach Club.
This is the same section of the beach used by a lot of the surfers to enter and exit the break.
Armed with whistles and oversized signs bearing the words “Caution! Seal,” volunteers tracked the movement of the mother seal and her pup, waving the sign and using the whistle as a last resort to warn surfers of the pair’s appearance in their vicinity.
This was a true test of the NOAA Fisheries’ mission of allowing beach access while protecting the endangered seals.
Olry herself was armed with a metal fence post bearing a monkseal warning sign, to post in the event the pair decided to come ashore at a different spot from where they had been occupying.
That area is on a sandy point just at the east end of the Castle Resorts’ Kiahuna Plantation property, not far from a tent that the volunteers have been using as a field command center.
On Tuesday afternoon, an international video crew was on hand to document the Hawaiian monk seal as part of their project on both the Mediterranean monk seal and the Hawaiian monk seal.
Volunteers explained that crew members would be on the beach this week, before leaving Kaua’i for the Northwest Hawaiian Islands, where they will continue to document the monk seals there.
During their late-afternoon dip into the Po’ipu waters, the seal pair moved eastward to the rocky outcropping at the Waiohai, and hauled out briefly before reentering the water.
All the while, surfers were enjoying the Waiohai break, taking advantage of the rising swell to ride the inside waves.
This brought several surfers dangerously close to the seal pair, and on one occasion, a young body boarder had to detour his entry point because of the seals.
Despite the large number of surfers in the water, the majority had used the Waiohai beach for their entries and exits, but there was one exiting surfer who seemed to be on a collision course with the pair.
But, catching an inside break, the surfer surged past the pair to safely land on the beach, the entire scenario creating some anxious moments for the volunteers.
Another concern for the shoreline volunteers was the appearance of a green sea turtle, also considered on the endangered-species list, that had hauled out on the rocky point just west of the Waiohai pool.
Once the seal pair had settled back on the sandy beach area, Olry and her volunteers went to check on the turtle, after beachgoers raised concerns about a tumor on the turtle’s mouth, and the fact that it was on the rocks for most of the afternoon.
After ascertaining that it was not entangled, or injured due to hooks, and consulting with several turtle experts via cell phones, the volunteers were reassured that the turtle’s behavior was normal, and the turtle was left to laze where it was, until the next tide would probably carry it back to sea.
Olry said, “If it’s still there tomorrow, Wednesday, then the concern level will rise.”
The surf caused by the season’s first strong South Pacific storm was predicted to rise and peak on Wednesday, before declining some yesterday, Thursday, Sept. 15.
A high-surf advisory for south-facing shores of all islands was posted for Wednesday by National Weather Service forecasters.
