Stranded Kiholo Turtle- High and Dry!

 Saturday, 1/22/2022

Turtle stranding 25 meters from the water up on the Pahoehoe lava... how it got there, we don't know.  

This turtle is of  particular interest because it has a fairly long tagging history at Kiholo.

Tagging History

Pictures of the Turtle

This image shows how far our turtle was from the water... it was approximately 20 meters from the waters edge.  It is highly unlikely that it voluntarily crawled that far away from the water.

The turtle was sitting on top of a mound of pahoehoe lava and was kind of "high centered" and didn't seem able to get off the mound.  

The front flippers were a bit bloody from trying to work itself off of the rock.  Otherwise, there didn't seem to be any other physical injuries.  Because we don't know how long the turtle was out of the water, we don't know how dehydrated it was.  When we put it back in the water, it swam away normally and appeared to be ok.

Stranding Report Submitted:

Date:  1/22/2022

Time: 1300 h

A park Ranger for Hui Aloha Kiholo called the HPA rescue hotline saying that there was a "large turtle" stranded some 20-30 meters from the water on the northern side of Wainanalii pond, Kiholo. Laura Jim and Marc Rice immediately got equipment together and drove down to Kiholo. The ranger met us at the gate and we drove to the TNC property .. north end of Kiholo Bay. We hiked out to the turtle and found that it was indeed about 20 meters from the water, stranded on the Pahoehoe lava.. it was "high-centered" on a dome shaped chunk of Pahoehoe lava. Some good tourists had been keeping an eye on the turtle and pouring some water on its back to keep it cool. We measured the turtle, recorded the tags and raised it up so we could get a look at the ventral surface. The only injuries that we could see were to the two front flippers where there was some minor abrasion from rubbing on the rock while trying to get off the dome rock. We then put the animal in a carrier box (at least most of it as it was bigger than the box) and , with the help of the ranger we were able to carry the turtle down to the water's edge and release it. On submersion, the turtle immediately swam away and didn't seem any the worse for its experience.  Relesserd at approximately 1400 h 

We felt that we shouldn't give this turtle a oxytet injection because we weren't sure if it had one or not.  I am thinking that a second dose would not cause any problems but ????

Why it was up on the rocks is not clear.. one week ago there was the Tonga  tsunami which did cause some inundation but I don't feel the turtle could have survived for a week out on the hot lava. High surf and high tide are possibilities but that seems unlikely. This is a mystery at this point.

Species: Chelonia mydas 

CCL = 85.0 cm

CCW = 83.5

 LH PIT = 4349634767 RH PIT =1154193d1d LH Metal = H21

Tagging History- First captured at Kiholo in 1992, and again in 2003 and 2004 .. all at Kiholo.

Travel Statistic and Time Allotted to rescue/recoveryTravel distance = 45 milesTotal Time = 2.5 h