On Tuesday, February 3rd, Laura Jim escorted three HPA students - Murphy Makely, Charlotte Kassis and Pemma Norbu- to Kona Village and Kahuwai Bay. The group was gifted the opportunity to volunteer with The Nature Conservancy's Kanu Koa Project. The project aims to accelerate the growth of reefs by planting corals in Kahuwai Bay that were deemed corals off opportunity, coral colonies that had been broken off from the recent swells. Part of this work includes research on the optimum method of "planting" the coral - either using a nursery system or planting directly on the reef itself. Students learned about corals of opportunity, how to fragment coral, and how to glue fragments. We worked exclusively with lobe coral, Porites lobata.
Sunday, February 18, 2024
Thursday, February 1, 2024
Waikoloa Hilton Field Work
1/30/24
Laura Jim, Marc Rice and 7 HPA STRP students traveled to the Waikoloa Hilton on Tuesday (1/30/24) to capture, tag and conduct a health assessment on resident honu that spend time in the "lagoon" at the Hilton Hotel. We arrived at the hotel at 0730 and began transporting our equipment to the lagoon area. We were set up and ready to work by 0845 and Ms. Jim and the capture team began the in-water work.
Two middle school students joined us to learn about the program and participate in the field work. They are hoping to be able to complete the training necessary to become part of the HPA Sea Turtle Research Program.
Over the course of the day, Ms. Jim and here team were able to capture 15 honu and we measured, weighed, tagged and did a health assessment on all of them ... we were finished by ~1445. There were lots of hotel guest and interested onlookers and the HPA team did a great job of informing people about what we were doing and why it is so important.Setting up our working area.. the tide was a little high but dropping |
Getting all the equipment out and organized... the tide has dropped already. |
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Turtle H173 was a recapture from our last trip to the Hilton on 2/7/23. It had grown about 1 cm in 1 year. |
The THE team releases a honu while hotel guests watch. |
Keeping control of a honu and preparing to put in in the carrier for release. |
Painting a number on a honu as part of the Honu Count program operated by NOAA. |
Recording data and looking at the Caulerpa algae that honu in the area like to feed on. |
The team releases a honu after it has been worked up. |
The HPA capture team heads out for another honu. |
Charlott brings in the smallest honu of the day. |
Catherine and Fischer take a honu out for release. |
H 244 is ready for release. |
Carefully putting our largest turtle into a carrier for release. |
The HPA STRP team after a hard days work! |
HPA Microplastics Workshop
Most plastics in the ocean break up into very small particles . These small plastic bits are called "microplastics." Other plastic...
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2/7/2023 The HPA STRP team went to the Hilton Waikoloa Lagoon to capture and tag turtles that live in there. There are a number of turtle...
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Friday, 10-7-2022 Ms. Jim and Mr. Rice, along with 10 HPA sea turtle research program volunteers traveled to Kiholo Bay and joined the Natu...
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1/15/2024 VANUATU STRP 2024 The HPA Sea Turtle Research Program Satellite Tagging Project continued this year as we made our fifth trip to M...