Hawksbill Turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata)

Growing up in Hawai'i I've known that turtles are special and endangered; but that's about all I knew. This summer I've had the privilege to work with the Hawksbill Turtle Recovery Project that works in partnership with NOAA and Hawai'i's Volcano's National Parks. There is so much more to know about the honu and the challenges they face.

There are seven species of marine turtles and all of them are listed as endangered in different world waters. Here in Hawai'i the Hawksbill Turtle is listed as such.

Nesting: Hawksbills only come on shore to nest. They also nest solely at night. It takes a Hawksbill 15-20 years to sexual maturity, thus determining population growth rates is difficult. A female Hawksbill can lay 5-6 nests per laying season and 150-200 eggs per nest chamber. At Kahamehame Beach, where I helped to moniter, there has been 30-40 nests documented at one time. Even with these hopeful numbers it is projected that only 1 in 10,000 turtle hatchlings survive. For the Hawaiian Hawksbill there are less than 100 tagged adults.

Threats: What are some of the threats that turtles, the Hawksbill in particular, face?

Hawksbills rely on coral reef communities for food and habitat. They use their beak shaped mouths to eat sponges. With the continued destruction and decline in healthy coral reef the Hawksbill turtle is finding it increasingly difficult to find sufficient food. Human activity is the main cause of coral reef destruction. Entire coral communities can and have been killed off by pollution (e.g. toxic spills). This habitat loss is now the primary global threat to these turtles.

These turtles are not only threatened by habitat loss but also by direct hunting and harvesting. Eventhough this turtle is protected in most waters the commercial exploitation of the Hawksbill is still a major threat. In some parts of the world, Cuba, the Turks, and British Virgin Islands, legal harvesting of eggs and hunting of adults are still legal in some form. The tourist industry gives high demand for curios made from Hawksbill shell, eggs, etc. to make jewelry, cosmetics and other souvenirs. At times whole turtles are stuffed ans sold in the tourist trade.

How to make a difference: The first and easiest method is to spread the word of how seriously jeopardized these turtles are. The public can do simple things to make survival of the Hawksbill a little less challenging. When a turtle is on the beach, the best thing to do is to leave it in peace. When camping or hiking through nesting beaches be cautious of where potential nests could be. Hawksbills navigate by starlight and sunlight. They often confuse streetlamps and other lanterns as starlight. So instead of heading back to the shoreline these turtles have been seen stranded in a parking lot under a street lamp, wondering where their ocean is. So if you're camping in nesting areas or see people who are, a kindly reminder to dim their lights would be a great help to the turtles.

Another major help to the Hawksbill is to not participate in the commercial trade of them. If the market for Hawksbill made cosmetics, hair clips, jewelry and similar trinkets goes down or disappears, who knows, maybe the survival rate of these turtles will be 1000 in 10,000 instead of just one.