HPA Sea Turtle Research and Conservation Program Activites: Rescuing Turtles During the Pandemic

May 3, 2020

A couple of honu vie for cleaner fishes at the turtle cleaning station.

While we are unable to do any field work during the "shut-down", Ms Jim and I are still able to conduct turtle rescues, etc. as long as we can maintain social distancing and use proper precautions.
We recovered a dead baby hawksbill... so sad for the harbor in Kawaihae and it is currently waiting necropsy on Oahu in April.

On April 28 we received a call from a diver (Kimi) who had observed a turtle with fishing line around its right front flipper. It was cutting into and strangulating the limb. While she tried to help she didn't have anything to cut the line with. We noted also that there was a facebook post by someone else talkingg about the same turtle. As a result of the conversation with Kimi Ms Jim and I planned a dive the following weekend to try and find the entangled turtle. We were under no allusions that we would be able to find it, but we felt the need to try (It is a big ocean!)

On Sunday morning, 5/3/20, we made out dive at Paniau where the turtle had been reported. We searched in caves and swam the area where it had been seen previously. About 70 minutes into our dive, having really sort of given up finding the turtle, we looked up as we were coming out of the second canyon lava tube and saw a turtle swimming about 4 meters above us. Noting that it wasn't using its right flipper to swim, we immediately agreed that this must be our turtle.

We swam along with the critter for a while but it didn't appear to want us to get too close. I was
about to give up, but Laura Jim would not! She swam off stealthily after the turtle and was able to
get close enough to grab the hind flipper and get control of it. I was so excited to see her returning towards me with the turtle. Once we both had control of the turtle, we swam to the surface and began to figure out how to disentagle and remove the monofilament fishing line.

I held the little turtle on my chest while Ms Jim slowly unwound and cut the line from around the right front flipper. It took about 15 minutes to complete the job (waves slapping us in the face, coving up the turtle and bouncing us around) and remove all of the line around the flipper.
Once all the line was removed, we took a few photos and then release the juvenile honu to continue on its way.

The right front flipper was severely impacted by the line and was quite swollen. We have hope that it may regain use of the flipper over time but it will probably never completely heal. We may be able to see this little guy in the future and it will be nice to document how it is doing after being cleared of that terrible fishing line.

Below are some pictures of the turtle and the flipper that was impacted:

This Photo shows the right front flipper with the fishing line around it. It is obvious that the line has cut into the flipper and is strangulating the blood flow and cutting into the flesh... a very slow, painful way to lose a flipper.

After the line was removed, the extent of the injury is obvious. Our hope is that the juvenile honu will heal and regain full use of the flipper. If the fishing line was not removed, there is little doubt that the limb would have been lost.

You should be able to identify this honu by the scale patterns on the right and left (below) side of head in case you see it while diving some time. We hope you will share your observations with us so we can see if it recovers from its wounds.