Ocean Watch

Once, I didn't know turtles lived in the ocean. I knew about Galapagos tortoises, snapping turtles and red-eared sliders. But sea turtles? The term seemed an oxymoron.

Then in 1982, I traveled to Hawaii and visited Sea Life Park. There, a group of greens basked on their beach, glided around their salt water pond on big, flat flippers and accepted lettuce from human hands. The soulful eyes of those gentle giants touched my heart.

Later, when I bought a sailboat, I named it Honu after those spirits of the sea, changed the boat's trim from blue to green and painted a turtle on the transom. I was in love for life.

Today, Sea Life Park and its band of greens continue to churn out turtle lovers. Besides the original adults still on display, some of their hatchlings are now sent out for adoption. In this Green Sea Turtle Ambassador Education Program, biologists send young turtles to qualified marine parks and aquariums around the country, including the Maui Ocean Center.

These hanai babies' only job is to look cute, and that they do well. Then, after living like movie stars for a few years, the youngsters are released to the ocean. Researchers hope the turtles' head start on growth will help them make it to maturity, which takes about 20 years.

Last week it was time for the Maui Ocean Center's five little emissaries to bid farewell. Several staff members and volunteers from the center released the young turtles south of Maui's La Perouse Bay.

The turtles had arrived at the Maui facility from Sea Life Park in March 2002 weighing an average of 14 pounds. At the time of release, these healthy 4-year-olds weighed an average of 60 pounds.

Hatchlings love fish and squid, but keepers are careful to keep these out of the young turtles' diet. No one wants the turtles approaching fish hooks in the wild.

Maui Ocean Center fed their five turtles "Honu chow" made of spinach, seaweed and gelled protein. A few months before their release, their all-vegetarian diet included local seaweed to prepare the youngsters for their own foraging.

In the ocean, green turtles also eat jellyfish and any other sources of protein they can catch.

Maui's five ambassadors have white numbers on their shells from 2 to 6. You can help researchers track the turtles' movements by reporting any sightings to Maui Ocean Center.

Turtle number 6, called Kupualoha (Flower of Love), also has a satellite transmitter on its shell. Federal biologist George Balazs attached the device and will follow the turtle's path for as long as the battery lasts, about one year maximum.

Balazs did the same last year with a 2-year-old Sea Life Park turtle released in the Alenuihaha Channel, between Maui and the Big Island.

That little voyager named Nakine swam down the Kona Coast to South Point, headed in the direction of Johnston Island and then turned toward Japan. Hundreds of miles later, Nakine found turtle heaven on Oahu's North Shore. And there it stayed.