A 50mm Life

Where’s the Seal?

A big surprise to us this trip was seeing a special species of wildlife close up on the beach of our favorite snorkeling spot.

The Hawaiian Monk Seal is on the "critically endangered species" list, as since 2008 it’s believed that there are only 1200 of this particular kind of seal left around the Hawaiian waters. This seal is indigenous to Hawaii and in 2008, was declared Hawaii’s State Mammal.

This female was about 7 feet long, and must have weighed somewhere between 4-500 pounds. She would dig in the sand with her nose, rest, she burped once (which smelled like 1000 foul breaths) and as pictured was rolling over onto her side, covering her eyes for some reason. She let everyone know when someone got too close - she definitely liked her space.

Not too soon after this photo, the Monk Seal fashion police showed up and got everyone much farther away from her. Isn’t she cute!?

EXIF:
Exposure Program: Aperture Priority
Aperture: f/8.0
Focal Length: 17 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
1 JPG exposure

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