What's Up Hawaii?

    Aloha and Good Morning everyone in the Hawaiian Life community. How are you all on this Monday morning? I hope you are all doing well and that you had a great weekend. Today I am doing an article on the Green Sea Turtles. In Hawaiian they are called the Honu. I have mentioned them several times but have yet to write about them, so today is the day. They are a precious part of our Marine Life. I'll send a couple links on them and youtube videos as well.

                                   *The Honu: Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles*

   The Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles are called Honu in Hawaii. They have been around a very long time. In fact, they have been around since the dinosaurs roamed the land. They are the gods of the water, and have been swimming in the oceans for 200 million years. That's a lot of years. The sad point to that though is that six out of the seven species are either endangered and on the verge of extinction or threatened to become endangered under the US endangered Species Act.

   As legend has it in Hawaii, a green sea turtle named Kauila could change herself into a girl, so that someone was watching over the children playing at Punalu'u Beach. When Kauila's mother dug her nest, a fresh water spring would flow upward, quenching the children's thirst. The story went on that the turtles were the guides for the first voyagers to Hawaii, and Kauila was the mythical mother of all the turtles.

   The Honu travel hundreds of miles from the main islands to the French Frigate Shoals to mate with other turtles and lay their eggs. Adult turtles do this once every two to five years. Females use the cool cover in the night to crawl onto the sandy beach, probably the beach she was born on, to make a nest and deposit up to 120 eggs that are the size of ping pong balls. She repeats this process every couple weeks.

   Determining the sex of young turtles depends on the temperature of the incubating eggs. The baby turtles hatch about two months later and head back to the sea. The baby turtles weigh one ounce and are maybe two inches long. They have predators though. On land they have to get past crabs and birds. If they make it to the water, then they have to worry about the fish. It truly is amazing what they go through in a lifetime.

   The babies that do survive will spend time at sea. They eat little sea jellies and plankton. When they get to be about twelve inches long they show up on the coastline of the islands. They start eating leafy greens and algae. At this stage of their lives they will grow to a wopping 200 pounds. That's just in the first twenty years. At this point they are sexually mature. The males are identified by their extremely long tail that is thick. It also has a mating claw on the front flipper.

   They then start their voyage back to the French Frigate Shoals, where they were born to mate, lay eggs and then start the cycle all over again... This is where we can enjoy their presence, along the coasts of the main Hawaiian Islands. They spend most of their eighty or more years here feeding off the sea grasses and algae. They can reach 500 pounds and the shells are over 4 feet long.

   Today you can find the green sea turtles on every mile of shoreline on the main islands. They haven't always been so in abundance. In the late 70's they were hunted to near extinction. They were listed on the endangered species act and it was illegal to hunt them. Because of this they have repopulated and the nesting females has grown to 200,000. That sounds like a lot but back in dinosaur days there were close to a million swimming in the ocean. The endangered species act though puts them in the threatened stage instead of endangered. It is very good news for the precious green sea turtles. They still have oither predators on the Hawaiian Islands...

   We don't show respect of our Honu enough. They deserve clean waters to live in, clean shores to live on, and not be driven out of their homes. On the Hawaiian Islands there are two major predators, man and sharks!  They have dealt with sharks for thousands of years and survived them. Sadly man is posing a much more serious threat to these Honu. Habitat degration which affects all the ecosystems of the reefs from polution to overdevelopment of coastal areas affects the habitat of the green sea turtles. Marine debri is a major problem for all living aquatic things. The turtles are no different.

   Just the simple plastic bag can get into the turtles digestive system and it can kill them. It puts a block in their system, and they eventually die. A simple cigarette butt is poison to our tuirtles. It's tossed on the ground and winds up in the ocean. Fishing line, hooks and nets get discarded all the time. A net alone can get entangled with the turtle and the turtle will drown. It is against the law to hunt green sea turtles but there are poachers that illegally to this day hunt them for their meat and shells or rob the nests of eggs. We have to do our part to not let this all happen so our precious Honu, the green sea turtle. If we do it will help it to be around for thousands and thousands of years to come...

   Well everyone, with the heat taking out my internet and an unexpected plumbing problem, I managed to finish this article even with the little extra Monday drama. ;-) I hope you all have a great week and stay safe. In between the drama I listened to my friend @GregSlawson 's CD's Waterflow I & II. They keep me from some distractions. lol Not the plumbing or thunder & lightening show though. ;-)  You can find him here: http://www.gccreativestudio.com/videos/WaterFilms/  It's worth a look, trust me!!!

   Don't forget the Store Front has lots of Hawaiian Life merchandise to choose from. Also pick up some great Hawaiian music or a Hawaiian Book or two. There are Tiki's still waiting for a good home over at our Hawaiian Life Facebook Fan Page. I'll send some links at the bottom to a couple of articles from Mike. Nobody tells it better than him. Also a couple YouTube videos as well. Mikes latest interview is also included. I think they get better every week. Hope you have been following him along on his Virtual Book Tour... it's been quite a nice ride! ;-)

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Di @DianneLittle

Mike @HawaiianLife

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glZkfACM0Dg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkfQCkBqbpA

http://hawaiianlife.com/content/hawaiian-honu-and-its-meaning

http://hawaiianlife.com/content/marine-life-coast-hawaiian-islands

http://hawaiianlife.com/content/my-new-site-help-market-my-new-book-pecu...

Today's Virtual Book Tour Stop with Mike:

http://margaret-paranormalromanceauthor.blogspot.com/2010/08/welcome-to-...

Until next time, Mahalo!

Aloha,

Di