Maui Hawksbill turtle monitoring and conservation program

Hawaii Wildlife Fund, Maui supports a hawksbill turtle nesting beach monitoring and in-water survey program.

To survey four primary beaches (Kealia, Kalepolepo, Kawililipoa, and Oneloa) for evidence of nesting annually between July and Dec. The program IDs females (by their existing flipper tags or tagged if new), monitor nests, and inventories hatched nests. The program also implements in-water surveys to gather observations and information of foraging hawksbill turtles via snorkel/dive surveys (60-minute mapped transects with 2-10 people snorkeling in a line parallel to the coast, sweep the nearshore area for sightings. Divers photograph facial and flipper scute patterns with accompanying metadata (date, time, location, depth, benthic type, oceanographic conditions, size, sex, behavior, and forage species). The program trains volunteers, develops & disseminates outreach materials.

Grant recipient: Hawaii Wildlife Fund; Collaborators: PIFSC Marine Turtle Ecology and Assessemnt Program

Impementation: 2010 - present