HPA Sea Turtle Research and Conservation Program Activites

Thursday, April 25, 2019

HPA / NOAA Sea Turtle Sex Ratio Project

During the Week of April 8 to April 11, a team of NOAA scientists from the Marine Turtle Biology and Assessment Program joined the HPA Sea Turtle Research Programs Laura Jim, Marc Rice and HPA students to study the sex-ratios of green sea turtle foraging in shallow coastal waters around the state of Hawaii. One day was give to logistics and presentations by the NOAA scientists and three days were field tagging days where we were able to capture and tag/sample 47 green turtles. To learn more about the project and the students participating in the project please go to our Sex-Ratio Project Blog

Thursday, March 7, 2019

HPA Students Present at 39th Internatiuonal Sea Turtle Symnposium

February, 2019

The International Sea Turtle Symposium took place in Charleston South Carolina from February 2 to February 8, 2019. A contingent of 4 researchers from HPA (Sara, Holly, Laura and Marc-see picture below) traveled to Charleston from Hawaii and from Germany to present our research on post-nesting migration of hawksbill turtles from Moso Island, Republic of Vanuatu. While there we attended several workshops, visited the beautiful city of Charleston and presented our research.

Chinese Visitors Join Tagging Trip to Puako

January 29, 2019

22 Puako Beach Road-

On January 29, 2019 we conducted a tagging trip at 20-22 Puako Beach Road, Puako, Hawaii.

We worked up 13 animals (3 recaptures and 10 new captures). Seven HPA students, Ms. Jim, Mr. Rice, George Balazs, Matt Ramsey (Conservation International) and three visitors from China participated in the day long event.

Several of our students are Chinese or speak Mandarin which was very helpful for our visitors. The students and guests did a great job working together to safely capture and tag the 13 honu. Overall the honu were is good health with only a couple of them showing signs of poor nutrition.

Below is a short note from Matt Ramsey, Hawaii Director, Conservation International:

In January 2019, Conservation International hosted a visit from high level officials from the Chinese Government’s Ministry of Agriculture. The delegation visited Hawaii to learn about the management of turtles, dolphins, and fisheries in our islands and collaboratively explore management practices that can address the declining resources in their country and throughout the world. Over a period of three days, the delegation met with Governor Ige, government resource managers, and representatives from the hospitality industry to learn about Hawaii’s sustainability initiatives and innovative resource management. On the last day of the visit, they had a tremendous opportunity to participate in a turtle tagging trip with Hawaii Preparatory Academy.

Under the careful guidance of Marc Rice, Laura Jim, and George Balazs, the delegation participated in the tagging of green sea turtles. This alone is an incredible opportunity for anyone to participate in, but this particular experience was special. This was an opportunity to catalyze global change. It was a chance for high level decision makers to physically interact with these special creatures and experience firsthand, how they can thrive. Throughout the experience, the smiles on the faces of the delegation were equally bright due to another factor…HPA’s local and international students. They recognized that it is critical for the next generation to become involved in these activities to ensure that progress is carried forward, not only locally, but also on a global scale. It is uncertain what messages the delegation will take home with them, but it is certainly one of hope.

A slide show of some of the activities during the day.

Below are some pictures of the HPA research team

The team photo at the end of the day.

Mr. Rice explains the plans for the day prior to the arrival of our Chinese guests.

Releasing a honu after it was weighed, measured and given a health assessment.

Weighting one of our captured honu.

Doing an oral exam of a honu.

Some of the team controlling a honu.

Getting ready to release a honu.

Many hands make for good control of honu. The HPA team did good work.

Julian helping to control a honu.

Ivy taking down data.

Moving a honu onto the table for measuring.

This was a plump little guy!

Sunday, November 4, 2018

Kaloko-Honokohau (KAHO) Tagging Trip

Thursday, Nov. 1, 2018

On Thursday, an HPA team of 12 student (9 Upper and 3 Middle School students) lead by Laura Jim and Marc Rice joined Sallie Beavers and her colleagues at the National Historical Park to capture and tag honu. Our last tagging trip to KAHO occurred on April 3, 2018 during which we captured 26 turtles.
Our team arrived at 0815 h and set up for the work day. We were ready to begin capturing by 0930 after a talk by the park service about the cultural significance of the park and where we would be focusing our capture efforts.

The capturing work began immediately after the orientation and we started processing turtles shortly thereafter. The students were divided into three teams and they each took turns capturing and working up the turtles (measuring, weighing and doing the health assessment).

By lunch time (1130 h we had 19 turtles processed. Six of these were new captures and 13 were recoveries. After a lunch break we got back to work and captured an additional 21 animals. Eight of the 21 were new captures and 13 were recaptures.

Summary:

We worked up a total of 40 turtles. There were 14 new captures and 26 recaptures. Overall, the animals we captured appeared to be undernourished with a few of them receiving emaciation codes of 1 and one of them receiving EC = 3.

There were certainly a lot of turtles in the area and I suspect that we could possibly have done 60 animals if we had the energy and time!!

The wonderful folks at KAHO were well prepared and facilitated capture and moto tooling so that we could work quickly through a lot of turtles. Thanks to everyone for all of their hard work.

Aloha and have a wonderful weekend,

Below are some images of the capture and tagging work that students, park service personnel and volunteers conducted.

The working area at Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park.

Sallie Beavers (National Park Service) talks about the special features and cultural significance of the Park.

A small honu is captured and placed in a tube for tranport back to shore.

Students help to control a honu so that measurements and health assessment can be taken.

Tag numbers are read to the data recorder.

Controlling the animal is essential

One of our captures had metal tags from when it was first captured back in 1997 at Puako Hawaii (about 30 miles to the north of KAHO.

This turtle was first captured at Puako, Hawaii in 1997. The caliper indicated its size at that time... meanng that in 21 years the poor critter had only grown about 10 cm in carapace length!!!