Kiholo Bay Sea Turtle Camera
Kiholo Bay has been one of our major study sites for over 20 years. It is an important forage ground for juvenile and sub-adult green turtles. Some of the resident turtles at Kiholo bay have been then for a long time. We have a record of one turtle that was captured 20 years ago being recaptured in almost the same area at Kiholo. True, it may not have been at Kiholo for the whole time, but it points out that turtles may well remain in the same area for decades. What we have documented is that once Kiholo turtles reach a certain size, they seem to disappear. That is, we never find adult turtles at Kiholo. We have found several Kiholo tagged turtles in adult habitat on Maui. It is likely that many of our Kiholo turtles have moved on to other forage areas after they have reached a certain size.
Kiholo bay is boardered on the north by a "lagoon" called Wainanali'i Pond. This lagoon is a favorite resting place for turtles and it is literally filled with sleeping/resting turtles at night. During the day, the shores of the lagoon are a favorite basking site of our Kiholo turtles. One area we call turtle beach normally has the highest density of baskers and it is the place where we chose to put our remote PTZ (pan/tilt/zoom) camera. Using the camera we can observe the basking turtles, identify individuals using head scale patterns, record when they exit and enter the water and, of course, calculate the duration of the basking episode. In general, we are trying to better understand this behavior and determine why our Honu spend so much of their time doing it.