Ocean Watch

Back in 1985, Craig and I bought a sailboat, a vessel well designed for offshore cruising. She was wide in the middle, a bit slow, but strong and beautiful.

With those qualities, the boat practically named itself. We changed the blue trim to green, painted a turtle on the transom and christened her Honu.

Honu

It's hard to believe now, but honu, the Hawaiian word for green sea turtle, wasn't common then, and I often had to explain the meaning of our boat's name.

Nor were the animals themselves easy to find. Spotting a turtle from the shoreline or a boat deck was a notable event.

But thanks to years of protection and public education, sea turtles are now Hawaii's darlings. You can't visit an art gallery, gift shop or even a grocery store here without seeing images of turtles.

And the real thing is common, too. Seeing turtles while boating these days is the norm, and divers and snorkelers swim regularly with these friendly, trusting reptiles.

Some honu have become so comfortable around people that dozens now visit Oahu's busy North Shore to graze on shoreline seaweed and bask in the warm white sand. There, countless people are getting a wildlife thrill of a lifetime by visiting these gentle giants.

People there also feed the turtles seaweed, a major part of the animals' diet, have their pictures taken with the resting reptiles and sometimes give the turtles little pats of affection.

     
All honu pictures are courtesy NOAA

Is this the way to treat a threatened species, protected by federal and state laws? The turtles apparently think it's just fine. We know this because for all their sociability, these creatures are still wild animals.

If this human attention frightened or annoyed them, the turtles would leave the area and not come back.

Some human activities, however, do hurt our turtles. In 2001 a strike from a speeding boat caused a serious shell injury to L2, a female turtle that frequently visits the North Shore beach known as HonuLani, near Laniakea.

L2 survived her grievous wound and made it to the beach, where federal biologists picked her up. Veterinarian and sea turtle specialist Robert Morris repaired L2's cracked shell with acrylic material used in human dentistry.

Several months later the wound healed from the inside, and the patch fell off.

The hit left L2 with a nasty-looking scar, and well-wishers continued to report the injury. This month, turtle researcher George Balazs eased turtle fans' minds by gluing a small notice on L2's shell. "Old injury," her sticker says. "I'm fine now."

     
All honu pictures are courtesy NOAA

And fine she is. L2 swam 500 miles to French Frigate Shoals, our green turtles' main nesting grounds, laid her eggs and then returned.

You can help Hawaii's sea turtles by treating them with respect. It's illegal, and mean, to ride, sit on, tug, tease or hurt a turtle in any way.

It's OK to love them though; it's love that saved them.

It also made our boat name famous. In Hawaii, I no longer need to explain the meaning of the word honu.