Kaʻū News Briefs, Monday, September 30, 2019

AS PUNALU`U BEACH BECOMES MORE POPULAR WITH VISITORS AND LOCALS, stewardship includes careful watching by the community group ʻO Kaʻū Kākou with it signs and cordoned off areas. Marked by yellow tape are areas where Hawaiian green sea turtles rest on the and places where hawksbill turtles lay and bury their eggs. OKK states Punaluʻu Beach is "perhaps the most visited and unique beach in the Kaʻu District."
     Signage and verbal warnings warn everyone to give the honu, a wide berth – 30 feet – and to not touch, ride on, or feed them. "Show Turtles Aloha," reads the bottom of a sign. It also says that feeding turtles "will change their natural behavior."  It could make the honu aggressive, if they come to see humans as a source for food. Hawaiian green sea turtles are federally and state protected animals, and fines can be levied for harassment.

     Hawaiian green sea turtles are the largest hard-shelled sea turtles in the world, reaching lengths of four feet and weighing over 300 pounds. They are endangered due to illegal harvest, destruction and alteration of nesting and feeding areas, incidental capture in commercial and recreational fisheries, entanglement in and ingestion of marine debris, disease, vessel strikes, and climate change.
     The green sea turtles at Punalu`u nest in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands, but spend most of their time here in Ka`u.

      Punalu`u is the nesting site of critically endangered Hawksbill sea turtles - also protected under federal and state law. These honu`ea suffer the same habitat loss and other threatening factors as green sea turtles. The Turtle Project at Hawai`i Volcanoes National Parks helps to protect the honu`ea by guarding their nests and  assisting hatchlings to leave their nests to make their way across the sand to the ocean where they live, only coming back to lay eggs at the place they were born.

     Adjacent to the beach is a lagoon which requires periodic cleaning and removal of invasive aquatic plants. OKK spearheads the effort to make this happen through their network of volunteers and the help of the Hawaiʻi National Guard Cadets. "Without this cleanup," states OKK, "unwelcome flora would take over choking out marine life that depend on this area for food and protection."

     National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association mans a statewide turtle stranding hotline, 1-888-256-9840. Reports of anyone directly affecting the turtles can be made to Hawaiʻi Island Department of Natural Resources Enforcement Division at 808-933-3460.