Saving the Honu

Magda is teaching me about identifying individual turtles.  Some turtles have very obvious individual characteristics. Ruby has a brown shell. Manini (Hawaiian for "small") is really small.  (I have not been able to get a picture of Manini because he only comes up  after it's too dark to get a good picture, but he's absolutely adorable.) Greenie's shell has a spot that is dented inwards, most likely caused by a collision with something.  Other turtles have to be examined more closely. Each individual has a unique pattern of scales on their head,  like a fingerprint. It is important to count the number of scales because that differs as well. You can look at the tail to see if the turtle is male or female. Males have really long tails, useful for grasping onto females during mating. Females have short tails. You can also take note of any fibropapilloma tumors or abnormalities in the fins, such as if part of the fin is missing.   As I was learning all thi...

Recently I'm spending most of my time at Ho'okipa Beach, watching the turtles come and go and collecting data. Yesterday there was a turtle almost completely buried in sand. At first I thought he was a rock but then I saw his tail. There is a picture of him below. It is very easy to mistake the rocks for turtles, and the turtles for rocks. Sometimes turtles come up on the  middle of the beach instead of the corner where they usually are, which makes it easy for people not to notice them if they're not paying close attention. A lot of tourists almost walk over the turtles, and when we ask them to move away, it's really entertaining to see their reactions as they realize that the rock is actually a turtle. Two days ago a girl screamed  in shock and almost dropped her phone. It was hilarious.   Most people are respectful and stay behind the line while they take pictures, but of course there's always a few that are really rude. There was one twenty-something Canadian gi...

Sorry I haven't posted in a couple of days. Things have been very busy! Sometime on Saturday, somebody found a dead hatchling in a hole in the sand. The hatchling was on its back. It had most likely flipped over and been unable to right itself, and died from exhaustion and dehydration in the sun. The hatchling had been missed by whoever was supposed to be following it. This got me thinking about natural selection and survival of the fittest. Scientists estimate that only one in every 1,000 sea turtles lives to adulthood. What if this had been the one? There is nothing to suggest that this turtle was unfit. True, it couldn't turn itself back over, but that is a small thing compared to all the instincts necessary to survive and grow to adulthood. The hatchling was obviously headed towards the ocean. That's a big deal when you think about the hatchlings that I chaperoned last night, who couldn't seem to go the right way. It was fully formed and had enough energy to get t...

As most of you probably know from Facebook, the hatchlings arrived last night. It was an amazing experience. I have no pictures because hatchlings are extremely sensitive to light, so the area had to be completely dark except for one red light. This made it very difficult to see anything so instead of looking for hatchlings, I just looked for dark moving spots. Our team of volunteers saved several of the hatchlings from the crabs roaming the beach. (Unfortunately, a crab did pluck the eyes out of a hatchling and run off, so we lost that one.) Many hatchlings became disoriented and tried to go the wrong way, but we guided them to the ocean. Several fell into holes but we picked them out. Many flipped over on their backs and we turned them right side up. In short, if we hadn't been there, who knows how many of the 217 babies would have been lost. Human intervention can be a good thing!! The first sign of a nest beginning to hatch is a depression in the sand. This is caused by the ...

For the past couple of nights, we have watched the nest carefully. No activity so far. As I said, I moved into my new house yesterday. I really like my housemates. Gigi is in massage school and works at a boutique in town. Neil works at a restaurant down the road. Lauren is studying organic chemistry. The house is nice and open wih big windows, but its all disorganized and the floors are very dirty. They have a broom but no mop and no vacuum. I went into town today to try and find a mop with no success. there are plenty of clothing and surf stores but you can't buy a mop anywhere.  So I bought some groceries instead and decided I'll clean the floor of my bedroom Cinderella-style, on my hands and knees. Fun fact: The eggs are buried about a foot beneath the surface. The first sign of hatching is a depression forming in the sand. This is caused by the sand falling between the cracks of the broken eggs as the hatchlings break out. The depression grows larger and larger, and af...

I moved into my rented room today. Pictures later. No hatchlings last night, but I'm about to leave for tonight's watch, so we'll see what happens! Fun fact: temperature is one of the hatching triggers. Nests tend to hatch when it's cooler.

No turtles last night. We will see what tonight brings! Yesterday, Joe and I decided to hike to Ho'okipa beach on Maui's north shore, where Green sea turtles come to bask in the sun. So far I am really impressed at how clean the beaches are here! The most litter I've seen on a beach is a bottle cap and a pop tab, although I've only been to four beaches and I know there are about a million.  On our way to the beach, I was at first happy to see that there was very little litter along the roadside. The farther we got from Paia, however, there was more and more litter. Fortunately, plastic shopping bags are illegal here, so there weren't any of those.  View on the way to Ho'okipa beach Ho'okipa beach overlook After walking for an hour, we finally made it to the beach... and there were the turtles!!! There were five of them all basking near one another. Signs surrounded the area instructing people to stay 15 feet away and not disturb the tu...

After a grueling journey (including a 12-hour layover in SFO which involved sleeping on the floor), we have finally arrived in Maui! We checked into our hostel in Paia, on the north shore of Maui, and promptly went to the beach with a group. It is so beautiful here. I feel like I'm living in a postcard. I saw the hawksbill nest that I'll be watching and it gave me chills. The surf is brutal, though... I felt like I had run a marathon after 20 minutes fighting to stay afloat in the waves. Turtle watching starts TONIGHT at 7:30! I'm so excited! The nest could hatch any day. Fun Fact: (actually kind of a sad fact) -- the Hawksbill turtle is so endangered that only one female has laid nests on the entire island of Maui this whole season. She laid four nests, which is about average (most females lay between 3 and 5).

... remember to avoid buying products made of turtle shells! Even though it's illegal, many souvenir shops and markets still sell things made of these endangered animals.

I made some pages with information about sea turtles. Take a look! These fish are cleaning a sea turtle by eating the algae and microorganisms off of its body. Delicious.