Kiholo Bay Tagging Trip

Kiholo Bay, September 26, 2019

A team of six HPA students (4 upper school and 2 middle school), Laura Jim and Marc Rice traveled to Kiholo Bay and conducted a sea turtle capture and tagging event.  This is part of the ongoing area monitoring program and the Hawaiian Honu Sex Ratio Project.  As mentioned in earlier blogs, since turtles sex is determined by the temperature of incubation, there is fear that increasing environmental temperatures might cause more female turtles to be produced and cause the feminization of the population.  To determine if this is true, we are joining NOAA's Marine Turtle Biology and Assessment Program to try and determine the current sex ratio of juvenile and sub-adult turtles in Hawaii.
This trip, in addition to monitoring honu health and growth, was focused on obtaining blood samples from each captured turtle in order to determine its sex.
During the trip, we captured and worked-up 8 turtles.  5 of them were recaptures and 3 were new captures. Blood samples were obtained from 6 of the honu.
A special thanks to the Nature Conservancy for hosting our team during the day and for always being so cooperative and welcoming.

Below are a series of images of our days work.

Kiholo Bay above with the arrow showing the location of our sampling area.

Ms. Jim retrieves a honu from the net while students assist with a carrying container.

It is protocol that blood samples should be drawn withing 15 minutes of capture to lessen the effect on hormone levels.  Here an HPA student draws 6 ml. of blood from the dorsal blood sinus.

After the blood is drawn, students weigh  the honu.

Students assisting with the assessment of a honu.

Using a bird speculum to look in the mouth.

Students help to control a honu while Marc Rice obtains a skin tissue sample for DNA analysis.

The head of a honu is gently supported by Penelope while the ventral measurements are taken.

A honu, all samples and measurements taken, is safely and harmlessly released back into the environment.

Releasing another honu.

Releasing

Releasing a Honu.

The HPA team along with Barbara Sidel (The Nature Conservancy) our host for the day.

Back in the laboratory at HPA, the blood samples are spun and the plasma extracted and frozen at -40 degrees C for later analysis of testosterone levels.

Pipetting off the supernatant plasma.

The team giving a shout out to one of our alum benefactors for his donation of the centrifuge, without which this project would not be possible.