Hochman, C.D. 1967 March 26 Kure Atoll Eric + I left the BOQ at 10 am + carried on geo. about 4 blocks down to the hangar for the flight to Kure. We certainly didn't need any orders for this flight because no one asked for any ID at all. Plane had to hold on the runway for 15 minutes until all of the albatross got out of the way. At the first sign of a break the pilot roared down the strip and immediately climbed to about 300 feet. The atoll is absolutely beautiful from the air with many brilliant shades of blue and green. Saw four turtles in the Midway lagoon and several sharks. About halfway along I saw what appeared to be several dolphins swimming thereabouts in a patch of light blue water. The plane flew at 1500 feet on the crossing. From this altitude the Lagoon Albatross looked about = 30 wide + were easily identified as were the Black- footed Albatross, Red-footed Gulls, Red - T. Tropichil and Bonin D. Petrel (which were numerous). As the plane turned for the final wheels down approach onto Kure I counted 14 adult + 2 subadult seals on a sandpit south of Green Island. No turtles were observed. Spent about 1/2 hour walking around 1 part of the island in an attempt to show the pilot a "moonlit trail" Although we checked many burrows + beat through a lot of Scardola none were found. The plane flew back to Midway around 2:15 pm. I spent the rest of the afternoon going around the beach checking for Black-footed Albatross chicks. Returned to evening chow and then walked some more beach. By full dark I had finished 7/8 of the beach on the island. Hochman, C.D. 1967 March 26 Even D., Kure Atoll Just before dark while walking the beach for Black- footed Albatross chicks, I encountered two adult seals on the edge of the Scardola on the beach crest. One seal [illegible] immediately bellowed and charged rapidly (for a seal) but was easily evaded. I then tried standing my ground and the seal stopped short about 3 feet away and backed off. This enabled me to move in closer and check the other seal for a tag because each time the seal retreated I moved forward. The female was bleeding from the vagina and acted very sluggish. It seemed reluctant to move so I backed off to keep from disturbing her too much. She was apparently beginning to give birth. Returned to the carnashio for my camera + flash attachment + returned to the seals in hopes of actually witnessing and photographing a seal birth. Got back to the two seals at 8:30 pm and sat around watching until 9:40 p.m. The seals had moved down onto the open beach from their narrow open area in the Scardola and were quite nervous at my approach. The full moon was out by this time and the Seals could see me clearly in spite of my headlamp. A chunk of the area in which they had initially been observed turned up some blood on the sand and on the vegetation; but not a large quantity. I decided, finally, that if she was giving birth that the event was still many hours away as I left the seals and began capturing birds. The bright moon was a great help to the birds but certainly didn't help me. I tried Red-footed Bobbie roosting in the Scardola on the south end but by the time I finished crocheting through the heavy vegetation all were gone. I then worked a few bodied albatross (Lagoon) and had a great deal of trouble with them - some restricted areas. Around 10:30 I tried Bonin D. Petrels but found that most of them were in the air. In 35 minutes I only caught 6 of 50 that were on the ground and 9 redleg tails which were in burrows.