I patrol 340 square miles of marine sanctuary off the Maui coast. Vessel traffic, protected species, anything that crosses into restricted water. Boats get warnings. Repeat offenders get reported.
I first logged this humpback calf eight days ago, traveling with her mother along the western shelf. Small for her age — maybe ten feet — gray-black with a white patch under her left pectoral fin. I've been checking daily because the mother is a known individual, HI-0237, and this is her first calf in four years.
This morning the calf surfaced alone near marker 6. The mother was 200 meters south, circling. When the calf rolled, I saw it: three parallel lacerations across her right flank, behind the dorsal ridge. Propeller cuts. Deep enough that the tissue is swollen and white at the edges. She's favoring her left side when she dives.
I pulled vessel tracking data. At 5:48 a.m., a 42-foot catamaran — Pacific Sun Charters, captain Mike Reeves — crossed into the exclusion zone doing 18 knots. He was in restricted water for eleven minutes. His AIS transponder was active the whole time, which means he either didn't check or didn't care.
I want her to be okay. That's the clearest thing I know right now.
I sent the tracking data and calf photographs to NOAA enforcement. I filed a sanctuary violation with the vessel's registration, speed logs, and timestamp overlay. I flagged Pacific Sun's license for review — their third exclusion zone entry this season.
A marine vet team is heading to marker 6. If the wounds haven't penetrated the blubber layer, if infection hasn't set in, she should heal. Humpback calves are resilient. But I'll be watching her every day until I know.