Monk Seal too friendly

Since we have had recent monk seal visitors on our beach, they too are becoming a more important part of our daily life here in Hawaii. Here is an interesting read from The StarBulletin.

http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20090226_Seal_too_friendly_for_its_own_good.html

When will we learn we must NOT interfere with these animals? It's not good for them or us. In the long run we all lose.

Long, Slow, Quiet Day

I am borrowing from my beach bud's notes and photos for today's entry. Mahalo Jill!

Trish and I had a very long day at the beach yesterday (Tuesday 13, Jan). We had 1st shift, starting at 9:30. Took a mid-day break, then back on the beach for the closing shift. One turtle (Sapphire) came up while we were at lunch. We spent the rest of the the day on an overcast beach. The surf was rough and the water murky, making it hard to catch glimpses of honus swimming and feeding in the rocky cove of Laniakea. Our only real excitement was a Japanese film crew photographing various sites on Oahu, including our lovely honus. Our trip home was very long due to an accident on the Kam Hwy. We made the best of it by retreating to Cholos for dinner, gathering intel, and re-routing ourselves via the snake road, finally arriving home at 9. All in all, a very long day!


Caity and the boys remind us why the beach is so much fun!


Sapphire sacks out on the beach. If you look closely you can see salt "tears" at the corner of her eyes. This is how honu process the salt water they take in - they are ocean-going mini-desalination factories!

First Turtle of the Year

While we are over on Big Island with family I have Guest Blogger Jill filling in...

We spent the 1st day of the new year on Laniakea beach - Honu Guardian duty! We took the afternoon shift and were rewarded with a visit from two honu and a monk seal. It doesn't get better then that!


Scallop hauled up just after 3. This was the first honu up in 2009. Scallop wins!


Check out the fine backside of Kuhina.


North Shore girl skims across the surf and come ashore. We were so surprised!


She pulls herself past Scallop.


North Shore Girl sacks out on the beach with Scallop just behind her.

The Night the Lights Went Out in Honolulu

Actually...the day AFTER. Jill took a trip over to the beach...

We had Genbu (my chosen honu) up, and precious came up later. When Joanne came, she let me scan the turtles and check their microchip numbers; it was too cool! Also, two honu were feeding in the rocks to the east; a large male and a juvenile. I don't know who they were but it was awesome to see them.

Large male honu feeding on limu just inside the rocky cove of Laniakea beach (juvenile is there but unseen in this photo).


Good view of backside of juvenile honu.


See the chipped scutes? Those waves and rocks beat up the little guys.


Me with my chosen honu, Genbu.


Precious hauls up at 2:30.

Mele Kalikimaka!!

There was an opening for the sunset shift today so we decided to take it and invite our friends to come along and spend the afternoon on the beach as well. Sonny, Deb and Terry were there and Deb had brought her pups. They were very well behaved!

It was a CRAZY busy day with visitors...event hough we had NO tour busses come by. Families were out in droves! Waves were great too which brought a good number of surfers. And we were rewarded with an early visit from Kuhina. He came up about 1pm and stayed. He moved up when the surf reached him so he must have really needed a good long winter's nap today! For some reason I ended up staying down near him the rest of the day...he was basking further down than the usual area so the other volunteers were still located over there. Bug climbed out on the rocks and E4 was there as usual. A few people visitors mentioned there were turtles basking on the rocks but no one could describe them enough to figure it out or even agree on a number.



Larry and Tia came by toward the end of the shift and stayed after we put things away and departed.

Honu Kahu...What does it mean?

It's pretty simple really. Honu is the Hawaiian word for "Sea Turtle"; specifically the Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle. Kahu is Hawaiian for "spiritual, cultural expert or guardian". I lay no claim to being an expert in anything, least of all Hawaiian spiritual or cultural issues. However because of our work with Malama na Honu (Protect the Turtles) we (the team of volunteers) refer to ourselves as "Turtle Guardians". Using the phrase Honu Kahu is in deference to that.

I may occasionally share other words or phrases from the beautiful Hawaiian language but please know I am far from fluent in it. I welcome any native/fluent speakers to gently correct and educate me in this area. *S* My pidgen is pretty good though so if you like talk story, try come by da beach and say aloha!

Catching Up

Just a quick note to say that we have not abandoned this blog; we have just been busy with family stuff and holidays. Bug and I are in the process of uploading photos, tagging them and posting. Watch for a bunch of posts in the near future!