Weekly Summary--Week 10 (01/09/08)

The plaques

In 1998 we laid down two plaques to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the sea turtle tagging and monitoring programme at East Island, French Frigate Shoals. This programme was initiated in June, 1973, by George Balazs and has been maintained continuously since then.

The Plaque at the place we call The Gateway looked pretty sad, so we brought it ashore for a much-needed washing to remove the sea things that had calcified there, obliterating most of the words, hence The Message.

The Plaque at the place we call The Gateway looked pretty sad. 56K JPEG

We had almost-good-as-new results, but will we find the luxury of time to put it back, given our other commitments?

We had almost-good-as-new results. 59K JPEG

**GULP** Sharks!

Each passing year we notice more turtles with parts either cut, chewed, or completely missing. This summer we've seen more than most. An August Maui News article reported a 22-foot tiger shark feasting on a turtle carcass in the waters directly off Kahana (about a mile and a half away from our dive site).

We know tiger sharks are "out there" because they certainly leave their calling cards on the Honokowai turtles--which brings us to one lucky honu.

This week we sighted a male with a clean shell, free from the algae and silt that fouls the carapaces of the turtles who reside here. The turtle was clearly just back from the French Frigate Shoals having completed his reproductive duties.

It was obvious he'd had a nasty encounter with a tiger shark. White scratches dug deep into his carapace on both sides of the shell.

It's difficult to imagine the actual encounter between honu and shark--first the terror, then the chase and flight, then the thrashing...

More than anything, it's difficult to comprehend the power of a beast that could gouge such paths into an adult green turtle's shell.

It's difficult to comprehend the power of a beast that could gouge such paths into an adult green turtle's shell. 61K JPEG

We have now identified well over five hundred turtles since we started in 1988. Most of them are assigned numbers and remain numbers. Yet some turtles leave us with special memories, or in some way stand out from the "crowd."

Standing out from the crowd. 57K JPEG

Certainly this summer, 1998 Turtle #61 stood out. He not only completed a 1200 mile migration journey he also survived a tiger shark in the process. Our first reaction seeing him was "Poor turtle!" but we quickly changed those thoughts to "Whoa, you lucky turtle!"

So 1998 Turtle #61 now bears the Hawaiian name "Ola" which means "alive" for reasons that are obvious.

George returns (again)

George has been here a lot this summer, conducting interesting research that we hope to report on once it's complete. This time, he needed cooperative subjects to work with and who could be more cooperative than Uwapo. Unfortunately, just as we approached, Uwapo decided it was time to go up for air. Was this a setback for George? Not at all. We signalled that we should simply wait patiently below. Sure enough, two minutes later, we saw a turtle swim in from the south against the current. It was Uwapo returning from air.

She headed straight for us, plied past George...

She plied past George. 43K JPEG

...swam directly over Ursula's head...

She swam directly over Ursula's head. 48K JPEG

...and landed a few meters away for George's "convenience." Remarkably, during the entire experiment Uwapo snoozed, with eyes completely closed. Once done, George stroked Uwapo's shell, thanking her for her cooperation and contribution to science!

George stroked Uwapo's shell, thanking her for her cooperation. 42K JPEG

The bloomin' bloom

The Cladophora bloom that made all the Hawaiian papers in May is still going strong, but you'd never know it from the Hawaiian papers. Then again, the slime is only in the water now, and not collecting on beachfront property where it offends human sensibilities and possibly real estate agents.

We offer here what Honokowai looked like underwater this week.

In the shallows Cladophora was still going strong growing vigorously even as the summer ended.

In the shallows Cladophora was still going strong growing vigorously. 45K JPEG

At 40 feet, Zeus rested on the sand bottom, Cladophora slime snagging the Halimeda plants and drifting in the current.

At 40 feet, Zeus rested on the sand bottom, Cladophora slime snagging the Halimeda plants. 49K JPEG

Thinking back

This Week 10 summary is being prepared under serious time pressures--we have an important issue to resolve here, we have to pack for our flight home in two days, and we still hope to grab an hour or two to relax.

Relax. That's something we really didn't do this "vacation." You'd think a two-month plus vacation on Maui to smell the roses would mean we'd make it a priority to smell the roses.

Instead we moved from one obligation to the next, and at a point when we were successful and could have stopped to take a week's vacation (this week) we committed to just One More Thing. Even if that One More Thing is successful, it will result in us arriving back in Canada as tired and wrung out as old dish rags.

So, do we have regrets about this? Not really. It was a summer of ups and downs. It was a summer with a lot of fun in it. It was a summer where we felt our age for the first time. It was a summer of experience.

Portrait of Zeus, a turtle of experience. 65K JPEG

Summer Summary

Summer of '01 at Honokowai

Turtle Happenings

Who's Who Underwater at Honokowai

Table of Contents

Last modified 01/09/08
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