July 4, 2019

THIRTIETH

TURTLE INDEPENDENCE DAY

MAUNA LANI

The Thirtieth Annual Mauna Lani Bay Turtle Release.

The Mauna Lani Bay Hotel has been under new ownership and undergoing renovation since last years 29th Turtle Independence Day Celebration.  The hotel is still undergoing renovation and, as a result, there was no "official" turtle release planned for this year.  In an effort to make sure the program goes on without interruption, Pi'i Laeha, the long time turtle program curator, decided to release two turtles with no official public involvement (it was just too hard to do anything large with the construction going on).

As part of the independence day release, HPA's Sea Turtle Research Program personnel assist by doing the final weighing and measuring of the turtles to be released.  This year, Laura Jim brought her HPA Summer School SCUBA students down to assist in the process.  We did all of the weighing and measuring at 1000 h on July 4th and the official release of the two three year old turtles occurred shortly after that at 1100 hours.  There were appropriate Hawaiian cultural protocols conducted by Danny Akaka and Pi'i had everything very well organized so that all ran smoothly.   The two turtles were name KanaKolu and Naholokohiki.

There was a small crowd of maybe 75 people that came down to the beach on the chance that there might be a release... they were rewarded for their perseverance and patience.  The two honu were released by some of the hotel employees and our HPA summer school students.  They swam right off into the beautiful waters of the Mauna Lani Bay lagoon.

Below are a series of pictures of the events of the day.

The release site at Mauna Lani Bay.  During an ordinary year there would be so many people waiting for the release that you wouldn't be able to see the water.

While the team controls the turtle, Marc Rice explains about PIT tags to the crowd.

Our very important data recorder writes down the PIT tag number identifying the turtles.

Theo helps to control the left front flipper of the turtle.

James controls the right front flipper,

Danny Akaka explains the procedure to the crowd and makes the appropriate mention of all who helped organize the release.

Pi'i places Kanakolu on a carrier manned by our summer school students.

The procession to freedom begins.  HPA's summer school students
carry Kanakolu down to the ocean for release.

Danny blowing the triton horn (Pu) to the four points of the compass to signify the  beginning of the gathering.

The HPA team carries Kanakolu down to be released. 

Danny leads the release team while chanting.

Ready for immersion and release.

The small crowd watches as the turtle is released.

The HPA release team.