Look what the storm dragged in

There's not a lot to report turtle-wise. I go to Ho'okipa every day, keep away the rude tourists, and talk to the respectful ones about turtles.

It's been raining a lot recently and the ocean has been pretty violent. The lifeguards sometimes put up a no swimming sign, and this is very helpful because it means that the tourists don't complain about the swimmers. "Those people are swimming and there's turtles in the water. Why can't I go take a picture right next to one of these turtles?"

Well, it's a public beach and there's only so much we can do. People are allowed to use the water. But that doesn't mean you can go stand next to one of these turtles who are all trying to get some beauty sleep.

Of course this explanation only gets groans, grumbles, and from time to time no response whatsoever. So I really like the no swimming sign.

A couple of nights ago there was a huge storm and the entire island lost power. Apparently this happens every now and then. Some important piece of equipment gets flooded or broken, and then it gets fixed. The day after the storm when I went to the beach, there were three warning signs right at the entrance to the beach. I've posted a picture below. They said "high surf", "strong current", and "man-o-war" (as in, the jellyfish). 

As I walked down the beach, I noticed tiny blue jellyfish everywhere. There's a picture of one below. I talked to Magda and she said that these are the man-o-war jellyfish. They're so tiny! Somehow I thought they would be huge. These jellyfish are also called "blue bottle jellyfish" and you can see why. 

The storm also brought in quite a bit of plastic litter. Fortunately I had a bag, so I started picking it up. Most of it was small, bite-sized pieces. These are the most dangerous because sea animals can easily eat them. I also found a group of six gooseneck barnacles attached to a piece of styrofoam. There's a picture of them too. I'm not sure what to do with them because they're on styrofoam, so I can't put them back in the ocean, but they can't live on dry land forever. For now I have them in a jar of sea water. I guess if I did put them back in the ocean they would just wash back up.

Tomorrow I move out of my current room and into Hannah's house. She has a room for rent that fortunately was available for this time, because the place I'm currently staying has a new tenant coming in tomorrow.

I can't believe my time with the Hawaii Wildlife Fund is coming to an end! On November first I fly to the Big Island to see Joe and start the "vacation" part of this trip, which will involve lots of camping. In Hawaii, you are only allowed to stay three consecutive days in any one month at any one campsite, so we'll be moving around a lot, and that means we'll get to see more things! And wherever there are turtles, I will chase away the tourists.

One last thing. An older gentleman who came to see the turtles overheard me talking to someone else about their vegetarian diet. He pulled up a video he had taken the previous week at a harbor in Kona on the big island. The video showed turtles tearing into half of a tuna carcass. I guess the fisherman had lowered the carcass into the water to show these people some turtle action. It was horrifying. The man emailed me the video and I showed it to Magda who was equally horrified. She said that there isn't enough algae and seagrass for the turtles to eat, so these guys are desperate for food. When I go to the Big Island, I'm going to see this for myself.