Sea Turtles of Hawaii and Beyond

 June 17, 2022

As part of the Hawaii State Library's summer reading challenge, Marc Rice presented a virtual talk about the sea turtles of Hawaii and beyond.  The idea was to explain the uniqueness of the Hawaiian honu and honu 'ea populations in Hawaii and then show three other turtle populations that are in other parts of the Pacific Ocean.  While honu and honu 'ea are distinctly a Hawaiian population, the northern and southern Pacific loggerhead turtles span the entire north and south Pacific Ocean from east to west and the honu 'ea or hawksbill populations in the south Pacific are critically endangered as are the Hawaiian hawksbill turtles.

The plan is to show that we are in one big ocean and many of the sea turtles utilize nearly all of it in the sub-tropical and tropical areas.  

WHAT WE DO TO THE ENVIRONMENT ANYWHERE AFFECTS US ALL EVERYWHERE!

You can watch the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_l9M-0zTXo

World Ocean Day

 June 4, 2022

World Ocean Day at Kawaihae Surf Park

Early Saturday morning, Laura Jim Picked up Charlotte and Savanah and headed to Kawaihae Surf Park to take part in the Kawaihae World Ocean and Reef Day clean up and educational activies Day.  As part of the days activities, HPA hosted a "booth" about sea turtle strandings and injuries resulting from fishing line and hood entanglements.

Other groups were at the event to talk to people about their programs and projects.  Ala kahakai trails group, Unexploaded ordinance recovery program, Coral reef recovery program and Keep Puako Beautiful were all there to share their concerns and solutions to environmental problems.

In addition to hosting the "booth" Laura, Savanah and Charlotte spent about 1.5 hours snorkeling in the waters right off of the surf park and they collected approximately 8 pounds of fishing line, lead sinkers, cans, pieces of plastic and other assorted debris.  Their effort were very much appreciated and helped to make the waters off of the park safer for the marine critters that live there.

The booths and demonstrations of the groups presenting at the Kawaihae Surf Park World Ocean Day.

Charlotte and Savanah listening to opening remarks and blessing.

HPA's presentation about sea turtle strandings and the problem with fishing line entanglement.

Savanah and Charlotte exiting the water at the Kawaihae surf park stairs.

Savanah and Charlotte with their marine debris haul.

Laura, Charlotte and Savanah retrieved about 8 lbs of fishing line, cans, plastics, etc.

Juvenile Hawksbill Dead at Hilton Lagoon

 5/11/2022

A call came in from the Hilton Beach concession group that a guest had reported a dead turtle in the lagoon area of the Hilton Waikoloa Hotel.  Chad, working at the Beach Hut, was able to retrieve the turtle and Marc Rice drove down to pick it up.  The turtle turned out to be a juvenile hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) measuring 34 cm curved carapace length.  It had severe wounds in the throat area but we don't know if this occurred pre or post mortem.  

My suspicion is that this is the work of a monk seal (once again) and that the injuries caused the death of this hawksbill.

Below are pictures of the little turtle.  It is very sad to lose a critically endangered hawksbill turtle like this.

Pictures of the turtle and the wound are shown below;

HPA STRP Participates in Earth Day

 Saturday, April 23, 2022

HPA Marine Studeis Program Participates in Earth Day

Laura Jim, Marc Rice and two HPA students volunteered to participate in the Earth Day clean up and educational activity at the Puako launch ramp on Saturday morning. Students were up early for a 0730 departure to Puako. They helped set up the booth with our informational materials where we focused on our HPA Sea Turtle Research Program, HPA's sea turtle rescue response program and information on fishing interactions with Hawaiian honu. The morning also involved collecting debris and cataloging it. There were 30 or 40 participants there and they collected a lot of trash!  

Ms. Jim, Luke and Alden helped with the cleanup and the trash weigh-in for record keeping purposes.  

The activities lasted from 0800 until 1200 hours.

Cynthia Ho Briefs the volunteers and does a round-robin introduction with all of the groups represented.

The HPA team from left to right:  Alden, Luke and Ms. Jim.

The HPA Team

Some of the HPA STRP program handouts and displays.

The Mumau family (HPA faculty) joined in the Cleanup.

Ms Jim sorting, weighing and recording all the trash that was collected.

Puako Line entangled honu

3/7/2022

1331 hours

We received a call from a family that was enjoying the beach at Puako near 92 PBR, Puako.  The caller reported that there was a turtle basking that had fishing line wrapped around its neck and both flippers.   I immediately gathered the necessary equipment and carrier and headed down to the area where the honu was located.  By 1400 hours I was there and met up with the reporting party... they showed me the turtle and, as you can see in the first two photos below, it was very heavily entangled and securing wrapped by the fishing line... along with a lure.

The line was wrapped around the neck at least a dozen times and was beginning to cut into the flesh.  The line on the right front flipper was beginning to cut through the flesh and would have undoubtedly resulted in the honu loosing its front flipper.  It is also likely that it would have been strangled by the ever-tightening line around its neck. 

I was able to remove all of the line and we released the honu into the water near where it was basking.  It swam away vigorously and should be fine.

A special thanks to the family that was responsible and caring enough to give me a call and report this poor honu.  We were able to release it from the fishing line and it should be fine... If we hadn't removed the line it most certainly would have died a long and painful death.

Juvenile honu with fishing line around its neck and front flippers.

Close up of the line around the neck and flippers.

 

Puako area where the turtle was found basking/stranded.

The line and fishing gear that was removed from the honu.  

Kiholo Turtle "has gas"

 2/26/2022

The TNC folks at Kiholo called to let us know that they had a honu in their ponds that was floating and unable to get down (dive).  They said it had been seen outside the ponds for a couple of days before it was seen in the pond.  Laura Jim was able to go down and, with the help of Rebecca and Kaleo was able to capture the turtle and put it into an animal carrier.  It was determined that we needed to ship the honu to Honolulu for further treatment and care.  Unfortunately, there were no flights available for two days so we kept the honu in the carrier in a cool shaded area until we were able to ship it to Oahu. 

After the folks on Oahu got the honu, they decided that they needed to ship it on the the Maui Ocean Center Marine Institute for care.  Once it finally go to MOCMI, the caregivers there gave the honu some IV fluids and antibiotics.  Currently the honu seems to be much better.  It is now able to dive, is feeding and defecating appropriately- all good news.  We are hoping that once they give it the green light for release they will ship it back to us for release back at Kiholo.  

This particular honu has a long history at Kiholo... First captured in 1988 at Kiholo and latest capture 2022.  We know this honu is at least 34 years old and still a subabult.. !!!

Here is a video outlining the rescue and return of HA85!

Pictures of honu in the pond at Kiholo.  It is pretty obvious that it "has gas" and is floating.

Kiholo honu with gas.

It is pretty obvious that this honu is really out of balance.

Kiholo Educational Outreach

 March 13, 2022

Kiholo Bay Educational Outreach    

Laura Jim "talks turtle" with students and faculty from Oregon Episcopal School at Kiholo Bay.

    

On Sunday, March 13 STRP co-directors Laura Jim and Marc Rice traveled to Kiholo Bay to meet with a group of students and faculty on Spring Break trip from the Oregon Epsicopal School to "talk turtle".  Since Kiholo Bay is the site where we first began our cooperative HPA/NOAA Sea Turtle Research Program it is fitting that this site was chosen.  Kiholo remains an important forage and refuge area for juvenile and sub-adult green turtles and is still one of our study areas.

Attached is a short video of beautiful Kiholo Bay and our talk with the students from OES.