HA 139 IS RELEASED
A small honu was found being kept in Waikoloa in a bathtub!!! The honu was well cared for for a period of 9 days in the tub.. it was picked up by DAR folks and brought down to Puako where the HPA stranding team helped by doing the morphometrics and putting tags on the honu. It was very vigorous and healthy looking so we felt that it would do fine and released it. Unfortunately, we noticed that once it was in the water it was unable to dive.. it was what we call a floated. Ms. Jim went out and retrieved the honu and we arranged to send it to the Maui Ocean Center Marine Institute (MOCMI) for rehabilitation.
After about 4 days of rehab and careful loving care by MOCMI. The honu (now with a carapace number, "HA139". was returned to Kona Airport. Laura Jim and Marc Rice picked up HA139 at the Kona Airport (Hawaiian Airlines Air Cargo) at 1530 h and drove it to Puako where we released it at ~1630 h. It swam vigorously away and seemed to have good buoyancy control. We hope it will do well and would appreciate anyone who sees HA139 can report it to a NOAA site (below)
Honu Count 2021
- Be on the lookout for turtles with a white number on their shell
- Keep a respectful distance of 10 feet if you spot one
- Take a photo of the number, without disturbing the turtle
- Record the date, time, and location—include the name of the beach/body of water, a dropped map pin, or GPS coordinates
- Email RespectWildlife@noaa.gov to report the turtle’s number and sighting details
To report any emergencies (dead or injured animals) call NOAA’s Marine Wildlife Hotline: (808- 987-6903).
Below is a short video of the release.
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