HPA/NOAA SEA TURTLE RESEARCH AND

CONSERVATION PROGRAM

Kapoho Tagging Trip

3/16 to 3/20/08

A team of three HPA students traveled with Marc Rice to join George Balazs on a trip to Kapoho, Hawaii. This is our second trip there this year and follows a successful capture and tag effort in February (hot link to previous web page). The focus of this trip was an area where Red Mangroves had been removed from a coastal pond environment. We were able to capture and work up (measure, weight, do a health assessment, obtain a stomach sample and a tissue sample for stable isotope and mictochondrial DNA analysis.

The primary focus of our trip, as previously mentioned, was the area once called Mangrove cove (see below). Since it was cleared, we have begun calling it Mangrove-less Cove. The question that we hoped to answer was how the removal of the mangroves might have affected the Kapoho turtles that called the area home. We have captured Honu in the areas intermittently over the last several years. In the early days of our work there, we noted that there were a number of turtles, juveniles, sub-adults and adults, that made the area there home. The backwaters of the mangrove cove were calm, protected and warmed by the volcanically heated water in the area and the Honu seemed to find the habitat appealing, particularly at night.

This is what the inlet to mangrove cove looked like in 2006.

This is the large pond we called mangrove cove surrounded by mangrove forest.

This area (now called Mangrove-less Cove) was once a thriving mangrove forest area (see above).

Several years ago when we first started our work at Kapoho, the number of turtles with fibropapilloma tumors in the area seemed fairly high and it was hinted by the locals that Mangrove Cove was a place where sick Honu went to die. Over the years it appears that the number and severity of tumored turtles in the Kapoho study areas has declined, much to the delight of the Kapoho community.

During this latest 4 day trip we were able to capture 18 Honu in the Mangrove-less Cove (MLC) area.. 8 by snorkel-hand capture and 10 by entangle net. In general, all of the turtles we captured in the MLC were healthy and seemingly well fed. The size of the 18 Honu we captured in the MLC showed that the area serves as a resting place for all ages of Honu. The captured animals ranged in weight from ~40 lbs to 220 lbs.

We did capture two tagged adult females on the last day that were not in our Big Island database. After consulting the NOAA data base, we found that both of them had been tagged during the nesting season at East Island, French Frigate Shoals (FFS). One female was tagged there in 2004 and the other was tagged there in 2005. Both girls seemed in good health and have probably been Kapoho residents for many years. We were very pleased to renew our acquaintance with these Honu and hope to be able to keep track of them during the years to come. Maybe we will see them up at FFS this year or next!

A 215 pound Honu that was tagged on East Island at FFS in 2004 during the nesting season.

The second FFS Honu. She was first tagged at East Island, FFS in June of 2005.