Kiholo Tagging Trip- 9/10/2018

Monday, 9/3/2018

We will kick off the tagging year with a trip to Kiholo Bay next Monday (9/10/18)  We will have mostly experienced HPA students during this first trip because I haven't had the time to get new students trained yet.  They will be invited for our second tagging trip on Sept. 25 at Mauna Lani Bay.
Our goat at Kiholo is to take a look at the turtles to see how they are growing and what their health status is... particularly if they are getting enough to eat.  The reason we are particularly concerned about body condition is because we have picked up several dead juvenile honu along the west coast during the last two months that were very emaciated- they were starving.
I will post the results of our trip a couple of days after we get back.
If you want to know a little more about the area we will be working in you might want to look at this youtube video.

9/10/18- Monday

Laura Jim and Marc Rice took 12 students to Kiholo Bay to work with Rebecca Most and Barbara Seidel of The Nature Conservancy at the Kiholo fish pond area.  We set up our field station between the two ponds at 0915 and began working immediately.  We worked until 1530 hours and then took a break after packing our equipment for a short but refreshing swim in the ocean.

In all we were able to capture and work up (measure, weigh and do a health assessment) 33 green turtles or Honu.  Eight of the 33 were recaptures and 25 were new captures.  Since we had not been back to Kiholo in over two years, it was not unexpected to see a few new recruits... however, nearly 76% new turtles was way more than expected.  The turtles ranged in size from a tiny 7 pound juvenile to a 77 cm., 162 pound subadult.  Most of the turtles were doing very well... nice rounded bodies indicating well fed animals.  There were quite a few small juveniles in the sample of 33 indicating that there is good recruitment from the open ocean at Kiholo.

The largest turtle (named Kevin by the students) was 162 lbs. with a  Curved Carapace length (CCL) = 81.5 cm.  It was first captured and tagged at Kiholo on Sept. 23, 2000 and it weighed 62 lbs with a CCL of 65.1 cm.  It was subsequently recaptured  on 3/5/2003 and on 2/20/2007.  After 18 years it has grown from 65.1 cm CCL to 81.5 cm CCL for an annual growth rate of 0.9 cm/year.  This is a very slow growth rate and means this animal probably still has another 10 years to go to reach maturity!

At the end of the day, everyone felt very good about the work that we did and the data that was generated.  The data has already been sent to NOAA in HNL for recording in their master database.
The students did excellent work remaining attentive throughout the long, hot day.

Below are a series of pictures of the day's events.

The HPA and TNC tagging team.

The work area at Kiholo..

View of the southern fish pond where we captured turtles.

Mrs. Jim and students capture a couple of honu.

Bringing in a honu for measuring.

Carrying a honu for measurement.

162 poiund "Kevin" swims by under the bridge as students watch.  

A juvenile honu is getting a checkup.

Some of the team holding a honu for observation.

Our smalles turtle- only 7 pounds.

A honu on the table being measured .. the white mark means it has been captured so that we don't recapture it.

A juvenile honu ready to be returned to the water after being measured and weighed.

Doing an oral observation.

Putting in a couple of PIT tags.

Ami reading PIT tags for this honu.

Keeping an eye on a couple of our captive honu prior to measurement and wighing.

A juvenile honu.  The white paper on the back shows the weight of the honu.

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Our awesome data recorder entering tag numbers.

At the end of the day, everyone got to go for a swim.

                                               The black pebble beach was like landing on a bean bag chair in the surf.

Mauna Lani Bay Hotel

8/30/18- Thursday

We got a report of another stranded turtle today.  It was at Mauna Lani Bay. In this case, we have another animal that seems to be terribly emaciated as though it starved to death.  It will take the necropsy to determine possible cause of death.

I looked up the tag data from this animal and found that it was one of the Mauna Lani July 4th releases in 2017.  The data sheet from its last "weigh-in" is below.

Dead 50 cm green turtle at Mauna Lani Bay.  Turtle was emaciated (emaciation code 3).

Broad view of dead honu at Mauna Lani Bay.

Mrs. Jim received a text message from DLNR that there was a dead honu at MLB Hotel at 1100 h (8/30/18.  Contacted MLBH security at 8856556 and they arranged to meet me and take me down to the turtle.  Arrived at the hotel at 1230 h and security drove me out to pick up the turtle.  Small (emaciated) turtle dead above high tide line on the rocks.  Security had cordoned it off with yellow tape.  Turtle placed in contractor bag and secured at 1245 h.  Driven back to HPA and placed in the Freezer at 1340 h.

DATE:  8/30/18 (Thursday)

Location:  Mauna Lani Bay, Hawaii Island

Lat: 19.944707

Long -155.869420

Species:  Cm

CCL: 50 cm

LH Tag: 4C3C5E1720

RH TaG: 4C38484F29

No obvious external injuries 

Severe emaciation (EC=3).  (skin and shell).

Animal placed in the HPA freezer at 1340 hours.

Above is the last data sheet for the dead turtle- we measured it on July 3, 2017 and it was released on the 4th of ully, 2017 during Turtle Independence Day, 2017 at the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel.

Another Turtle Recovery

8/18/18
Last night we got a call about a dead turtle at 88 Puako Beach Road but were unable to recover it.  This morning we went down and recovered the carcass.  It was a 54.5 cm CCL juvenile that was terribly emaciated and probably starved to death.  Why it starved is another question???!!!!

54.5 cm CCL juvenile turtle recovered at 88 Puako Beach Road.  Found dead on the beach.  It was terribly emaciated and appears to have starved to death.  The reason for its starvation is unclear but necropsy may help answer that question.

Later that day, during a dive at the turtle cleaning station not far from where we recovered the turtle above, we observed some pretty thin/skinny turtles being cleaned.

You can tell that this turtle at the cleaning station is very thin..bordering on emaciated.


The same turtle as shown above getting a cleaning at Puako.

During our dive at Puako, we were able to observe a subadult turtle "rubbing" its carapace.

2018-19 PROGRAM STARTING UP

8/18/18

On Monday, 8/20/18, I will hold the first meeting to gather new volunteers for the school year.  There seems to be a lot of interest this year and I hope that we are able to fulfill everyones expectations.  Monday will be the first session where I explain our program and it's history.  The second session will be about sea turtle biology, ecology and conservation and the third session will be about the ins and outs, do's and don'ts of field work. 

I look forward to starting the field season with our first trip to Kiholo Bay on Sept. 10,2018.  Our second trip will be to Mauna Lani Bay on Sept. 25, 2018. 

It has been an exciting beginning week of school and I think we are off to a good start!

Another Turtle Recovery

8/12/18- Sunday

At about 1530 hours I got a call about a dead turtle at 134 Puako Beach Road.  The details are below.

Call came in at 1300 h on Sunday (8/12/18 ).  Dead Turtle partially buried in the sand in front of 134 PBR.

Responded at 1530 and could not find the turtle - King tide had washed it out to sea.  At 1620 we saw the turtle floating near shore about 30 meters from the point where it was first observed on shore.  Turtle has been dead a few days... loosing scales on flippers and head.  Retrieved the turtle and placed it in a plastic bag and transported it to HPA and the freezer (1700 h).

species:  Chelonia mydas

Size= CCL = 67.5 cm

Location:  19.962977° N, 155.856073° W

Tags:  LH = 470C5F763

No apparent cause of death.

TAG HISTORY:

470B366F42	470C5F7623	11/28/07	KALOKO	Zone D	scl = 53.0
470B366F42	470C5F7623	11/18/08	KALOKO	Zone A	53.2
470B366F42	470C5F7623	10/13/09	KALOKO	Zone B	53.0
470B366F42		11/15/13	KALOKO	Zone B	56.8

This turtle was a Koloko Honokohau capture for a number of years (2007 to 2013) and it appears to have moved to a different forage ground... Interesting!!!!

Opening of School

8/12/18 - Sunday

Laura Jim and students hosted an informational table at the HPA activities showcase on Sunday afternoon from 1600 to 1700 h.  Information about the SCUBA program and the Sea Turtle Research Program was available to new students and a signup sheet for each was available.

Tim and Holly share information about the SCUBA and Sea Turtle Research Programs.

The first meeting for the STRP will be on Monday, 8/20/18 at 1410 in The Dyer Library.

Recovery of a Honu

7-31-18

In keeping with the idea of logging our activities, I have decided to include things that may involve less than pleasant information.  In that vein, I am posting a report of a dead honu from the Puako area.  Yesterday morning at 0730 hours a report came in that there was a dead honu on the beach at 12 Puako Beach Road.  Below are some images of the poor critter.  There was no apparent cause of death but the animal was fairly severely emaciated and had fishing line wrapped around the right front flipper (fishing line was not the immediate cause of deaath).  I recovered the turtle and placed it in our HPA freezer and it will be shipped to Honolulu (the Marine Turtle Biology and Assessment Program) folks who will do a necropsy to try and determine the cause of death.  Recovering stranded/dead turtles is very important from a scientific standpoint ... it enables us to enumerate the numbers, locations, causes and implications of death in sea turtles.  Please make every effort to report sick injured or stranded turtles to 8814200.

Location of dead honu on beach.

This sub-adult green turtle measured 62.5 cm curved carapace length.  It was found dead on the sandy beach.

Fishing line was wrapped around the right front flipper.