WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:03:16.880 --> 00:03:23.600 All right. Aloha mai kakou and welcome  everybody it is 9 a.m, so we're gonna start.  00:03:23.600 --> 00:03:30.480 As people keep trickling into the webinar. So we're  pleased to have you join us for the "24 years of   00:03:30.480 --> 00:03:37.040 Maui Sea turtle conservation with Hawai'i Wildlife  Fund webinar. This webinar is hosted by the Hawaiian   00:03:37.040 --> 00:03:42.400 Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary  and is a great way to learn about some of the   00:03:42.400 --> 00:03:49.440 exploration, research and discoveries occurring  in our Sanctuary. So during the presentation all   00:03:49.440 --> 00:03:55.280 attendees will be in listen only mode. You are  welcome to type questions for the presenter into   00:03:55.280 --> 00:04:00.480 the questions box in the bottom of the control  panel on the right hand side of your screen.   00:04:01.360 --> 00:04:07.680 This is the same area you can let us know about  any technical issues you may be having. We will   00:04:07.680 --> 00:04:13.840 be monitoring incoming questions and technical  issues and will respond to them as soon as we can.   00:04:14.800 --> 00:04:20.960 Also in your control panel you will find PdF handouts available for you to view and download.   00:04:22.400 --> 00:04:26.880 We are recording this session and will  house it on our website in the future   00:04:26.880 --> 00:04:30.640 and all attendees will get an email  notifying when it is finally posted. 00:04:36.560 --> 00:04:40.960 All right so I am Cindy Among-Serrao, one of your hosts for this webinar.   00:04:40.960 --> 00:04:46.000 I serve as the Sanctuary Advisory Council and  Sanctuary Ocean Count Coordinator with the   00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:51.360 Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine  Sanctuary and I am based on the island of Oahu.   00:04:52.400 --> 00:04:56.320 My fellow host for today is  Allen Tom, the superintendent   00:04:56.320 --> 00:05:01.600 of Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine  Sanctuary and he is based on the island of Maui. 00:05:08.640 --> 00:05:15.040 So the NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries  serves as the trustee for a network of underwater   00:05:15.040 --> 00:05:22.160 parks encompassing more than 600 000 square miles  of marine and Great Lakes waters from Washington   00:05:22.160 --> 00:05:28.880 state to the Florida Keys and from Lake Huron  to American Samoa. The network includes a system   00:05:28.880 --> 00:05:34.080 of fourteen National Marine Sanctuaries  and Papahanamokuakea and Rose Atoll   00:05:34.640 --> 00:05:40.160 Marine National Monuments. Here you will see a map  of the different sanctuaries and two monuments. 00:05:44.960 --> 00:05:50.080 So the NOAA Office of National Marine  Sanctuaries is mandated to conduct research,   00:05:50.080 --> 00:05:56.400 monitoring, resource protection, education,  outreach and of course management of America's   00:05:56.400 --> 00:06:07.600 underwater treasures, to preserve them for future  generations. National Marine Sanctuaries are   00:06:07.600 --> 00:06:13.440 living classrooms where people can see touch and  learn about the Nation's Great Lakes and ocean 00:06:13.440 --> 00:06:25.760 treasures. So now I'm going to pass it on to Allen  Tom who will be providing more information on our   00:06:25.760 --> 00:06:32.800 Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine  Sanctuary. Okay. So thank you Cindy. Good morning. I   00:06:32.800 --> 00:06:37.840 don't know if you can see me with my head cut  off like that, thank you so much everybody for   00:06:37.840 --> 00:06:46.400 joining us today. If you are having audio problems,  I was looking at the chat earlier, just put it in   00:06:46.400 --> 00:06:51.920 the chat box and Cindy and I will try to help you  throughout the talk. Again my name is Allen Tom.   00:06:51.920 --> 00:06:58.320 I want to welcome you to today's talk. We are doing  this as part of a much larger National web series   00:06:58.880 --> 00:07:04.000 and I think this is the last one that we're  doing for this year, but we will be doing several   00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:09.920 more next year. We have some speakers lined up  already and I'll tell you about that at the end   00:07:09.920 --> 00:07:16.400 of our talk, that means you have to stick around  for the entire talk. This talk is being recorded   00:07:16.400 --> 00:07:22.800 and it will be closed-captioned and as Cindy  said will go up online. You all will get an email   00:07:22.800 --> 00:07:29.760 notifying you that this webinar has become  available. So I just want to talk about our place   00:07:29.760 --> 00:07:35.120 that we are talking about or learning about  today and it's the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale   00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:41.120 National Marine Sanctuary. Cindy, if I can have  the next slide, I believe it is a slide of the   00:07:41.120 --> 00:07:49.280 boundary of the Sanctuary so you can see in the  red dotted area around the islands of Kauai, Oahu   00:07:49.280 --> 00:07:57.040 and parts of Maui, is the sanctuary boundary  and that is the area which we do our work.   00:07:57.040 --> 00:08:02.560 And in the next slide you can actually see the  four island area of Maui County that's called the   00:08:02.560 --> 00:08:09.680 Maui Nui area that is where our headquarters is  located and there's the island of Maui. Thank you   00:08:09.680 --> 00:08:15.680 Cindy for pointing that out. This is also the  island where our speaker is from, Hannah Bernard.   00:08:15.680 --> 00:08:21.440 And we also have part of our boundary off  of the Big Island. So this is again where we   00:08:21.440 --> 00:08:25.840 work where we do our research and where we have a  lot of our partnerships with other organizations.   00:08:26.960 --> 00:08:33.840 Next slide please and I believe, okay  so we had a Ocean Users workshop   00:08:34.960 --> 00:08:40.560 at the earlier part of this month, I believe it  was November 6 and we went over all the various   00:08:40.560 --> 00:08:46.800 federal rules and state rules protecting our  marine mammals and sea turtles in Hawaiian waters.   00:08:46.800 --> 00:08:54.000 So this booklet should be available to you in your  attach or your handout section. But the main thing   00:08:54.000 --> 00:09:02.880 I want to point out here is here is the 24-hour  hotline 1-888-256-9840 if you are in Hawai'i and   00:09:02.880 --> 00:09:06.880 you're out on the water or actually if you're  on the beach and you see somebody harassing   00:09:07.680 --> 00:09:16.000 any of these protected animals, please call this  number and you are thus reporting this incident   00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:22.800 to the various authorities. So next slide we  also because we work with a variety of different   00:09:23.360 --> 00:09:29.520 groups to get our information out much like the  Hawai'i Wildlife Fund that Hannah Bernard runs.   00:09:30.400 --> 00:09:34.000 We partner with different agencies  and this is a Tide calendar   00:09:35.200 --> 00:09:40.320 that is available to you, that you can download.  I know if you've been calling in to our talks   00:09:40.320 --> 00:09:45.600 this is about the fifth time you've heard me  plug our calendar, but it is available and   00:09:45.600 --> 00:09:50.880 unfortunately is only for the tides in and around  the Hawaiian Islands, so if you're calling in from   00:09:50.880 --> 00:09:57.120 Peru, like Dianne is, probably won't help you too  much. But this is just yet another example of the   00:09:57.120 --> 00:10:03.840 products we have at the Sanctuary that is made  available to the public for their use. Next slide. 00:10:06.480 --> 00:10:12.320 Okay we get into the meat of our discussion  today and that is that I get to introduce   00:10:12.320 --> 00:10:18.320 our speaker, Ms. Hannah Bernard and you know I  have known Hannah now going on 27 years. I am   00:10:18.320 --> 00:10:24.000 proud to call her a friend because she really is a  conservationist and those of you who live on Maui,   00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:29.280 if you hear the name, Hannah Bernard you  know that is a project that she's involved with   00:10:29.280 --> 00:10:37.120 which has important standing. She was  one of the early if not one of the few early   00:10:37.120 --> 00:10:43.040 supporters of the National Sanctuary here in  Hawai'i, at a time when we didn't have a lot   00:10:43.040 --> 00:10:48.720 of friends, when people just were you know so up  in arms about having National Marine Sanctuary   00:10:48.720 --> 00:10:54.800 here in Hawai'i. Hannah stood tall and in public  and announced her support of the Sanctuary.   00:10:55.600 --> 00:11:00.640 She is the Executive Director of the Hawai'i  Wildlife Fund and at the end of her presentation   00:11:00.640 --> 00:11:06.560 she'll talk about her latest venture that  we are partnering with her on, that should   00:11:06.560 --> 00:11:13.680 happen up in the Lahaina-side of West Maui,  which will be happening next year. But Hannah   00:11:13.680 --> 00:11:20.320 is like I said a leader in conservation here in  the Islands. She was one of the founding members   00:11:20.320 --> 00:11:27.680 of our Sanctuary Advisory Council, she sits on the  NOAA Fisheries Recovery teams, she's a teacher   00:11:27.680 --> 00:11:37.040 at the University of Hawai'i, Maui campus and the  list goes on and on. So rather than me continue to   00:11:38.160 --> 00:11:44.800 exude all the things that she is to us and  has been to our program, I am just going to invite   00:11:44.800 --> 00:11:52.880 Hannah to turn her camera on and her microphone on  so she can talk about her work with sea turtles   00:11:52.880 --> 00:11:58.400 here on the island. I should say that she doesn't  just do sea turtles but for today's talk she is   00:11:58.400 --> 00:12:06.720 going to talk about sea turtles, so Hannah welcome,  and go ahead and take it away. Mahalo. Thank you   00:12:06.720 --> 00:12:13.040 so much what a nice introduction, thank you Allen.  What a pleasure to get to be with you today and   00:12:13.920 --> 00:12:19.920 Aloha to everyone good morning, good afternoon , wherever you are in the world, thank you for   00:12:19.920 --> 00:12:30.720 joining us today and it very much is us because  this is a program this Hawai'i Wildlife Fund Sea   00:12:30.720 --> 00:12:40.160 Turtle Conservation program that I am very much  just the figurehead of. I have been running Hawai'i   00:12:40.160 --> 00:12:48.640 Wildlife Fund since our inception 24 years ago and  we'll be 25 this spring. I'm proud to say we have   00:12:48.640 --> 00:12:56.640 a silver anniversary coming up but this is very  much a collaborative community-based project it's   00:12:56.640 --> 00:13:03.680 based in deep in the foundation of education and  research and this program would not be possible   00:13:03.680 --> 00:13:10.560 without the involvement of many partners including  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, NOAA, the National   00:13:10.560 --> 00:13:15.920 Fisheries Service Pacific Island Fisheries Science  Center and the Pacific Island Regional Office, DLNR,   00:13:15.920 --> 00:13:22.880 Department of Aquatic Resources. So I'm just  thrilled to get to share with you folks today   00:13:22.880 --> 00:13:29.680 the great work that the many people who've  contributed to this program have done. It's been   00:13:29.680 --> 00:13:38.240 very much a shared community well-loved program  but before i get too much further into it. 00:13:41.920 --> 00:13:48.400 I'll just share a moment about Hawai'i Wildlife  Fund. We do have headquarters on two islands,   00:13:48.400 --> 00:13:57.120 Hawai'i island and Maui, our headquarters are home  offices, mine in Pai'a and Megan Lampson heads up   00:13:57.120 --> 00:14:04.640 our Hawaii island side of the house from  Kealakekua area. Bill Gilmartin, our co-founder   00:14:04.640 --> 00:14:12.080 has sort of withdrawn to the big,  big island of the U.S mainland,   00:14:12.080 --> 00:14:19.040 but he still comes and works with us quite often  and is with us every year a lot. So let's focus   00:14:19.040 --> 00:14:26.160 directly on the turtles of interest. So I'm  going to start with a question for everybody 00:14:29.600 --> 00:14:37.200 and the question is: Which sea turtles of  the world can be seen in Hawaii's waters ? 00:14:42.880 --> 00:14:48.880 All right. Aloha everyone so you guys should see  on your screen a quick poll that Hannah just asked   00:14:48.880 --> 00:14:55.040 the question, so we're gonna give you guys some  time to select all that apply for the species of   00:14:55.040 --> 00:15:01.120 sea turtles that you can find in Hawaiian waters.  So we'll wait till about 70 to 80 percent of   00:15:01.120 --> 00:15:11.840 attendees have voted and then we'll share the  results. I think the poll just fell off the page. 00:15:19.920 --> 00:15:29.520 It will show up again Hannah. Okay  all right, we're at 60, 71 percent voted   00:15:29.520 --> 00:15:39.840 so if everyone can continue to get their  votes in give it a few more seconds. 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:55.440 Oh All right so I am going  to share the results now   00:15:55.440 --> 00:16:00.000 Hannah, so you should be able to  see it in one moment. All right 00:16:04.080 --> 00:16:07.840 all right very good. 00:16:11.840 --> 00:16:14.080 That's right. So 00:16:18.720 --> 00:16:22.480 are you gonna say something  Cindy? Nope you take it away.   00:16:22.480 --> 00:16:28.800 All right, so yes indeed, we have  Leatherbacks, can be seen in our waters   00:16:30.400 --> 00:16:38.000 very rarely, Green turtles, much more commonly and  by the way this nice card Sea Turtles of the World   00:16:38.000 --> 00:16:44.560 and their ICUN status produced by Divers for  Turtles also has their typical weight and length   00:16:45.120 --> 00:16:49.440 and some information about how to tell them  apart, right there below each of the turtles.   00:16:49.440 --> 00:16:55.280 Loggerheads can be seen occasionally, I've  even seen one myself in our near shore waters,   00:16:57.280 --> 00:17:00.960 of course our Hawksbill, which we'll  be focusing a lot of our time on today,   00:17:01.920 --> 00:17:06.800 are very rare, critically endangered Hawksbill Sea turtle and Olive Ridleys. 00:17:10.960 --> 00:17:18.400 And then I want you to notice in this  panel to the right bottom row it has   00:17:18.400 --> 00:17:23.600 some characters that we use to identify sea  turtles that will become important for you   00:17:23.600 --> 00:17:28.080 to pay attention to if you don't already  know how we identify sea turtle species. 00:17:31.440 --> 00:17:34.400 Which brings me to my next poll question. 00:17:36.640 --> 00:17:45.840 How do you tell the difference between  our two most commonly seen turtles?   00:17:46.880 --> 00:17:50.720 All right everyone. So you'll see your  second poll question on the screen   00:17:50.720 --> 00:17:59.840 and this one is just selecting one answer. So we'll  give some time for folks to submit their answers. 00:18:04.320 --> 00:18:13.840 How can you tell the difference  between Green and Hawksbill Sea turtles ? 00:18:19.680 --> 00:18:27.840 And we'll give it a few more time we have around  60 percent of attendees voting or voted so far. 00:18:36.400 --> 00:18:41.840 Okay a few more seconds folks to get your votes in. 00:18:49.520 --> 00:18:56.880 Okay as it starts to trickle down  we are now going to close the poll. 00:19:06.960 --> 00:19:12.960 All right so now everyone can see the results   and Hannah if you want to explain what the answer   00:19:12.960 --> 00:19:19.840 was. Good all of the above. That is the correct  answer and it's good to see what a high rate of   00:19:19.840 --> 00:19:27.200 knowledge our viewers have on the subject because  this is one of our most important goals of our   00:19:27.200 --> 00:19:32.400 program is to help people understand these are the  two most commonly seen species in our near shore   00:19:32.400 --> 00:19:39.120 waters of Hawai'i although one species is much  rarer than the other. So we've got our green turtle   00:19:39.760 --> 00:19:45.280 and our Hawksbill Sea turtle and if you look  closely at these photos you'll see that there are   00:19:45.280 --> 00:19:51.200 some differences. They're a little bit subtle for  for many people in the field I see that there are   00:19:51.200 --> 00:19:56.640 a lot of people who have a hard time identifying  the difference particularly for younger animals   00:19:57.360 --> 00:20:01.680 and so we really want to make sure people  understand and see the difference because our   00:20:01.680 --> 00:20:06.880 Hawksbills are endangered, our Green Sea turtles  are threatened on the endangered species list.   00:20:07.440 --> 00:20:12.480 A distinct population segment here in  Hawai'i but they are still protected by law   00:20:12.480 --> 00:20:23.280 however our Hawksbills are very precious so rare  in Hawai'i also known as 'ea or hawksbill or honu'ea   00:20:23.920 --> 00:20:30.000 and honu for the green. I'd like to  give a credit to our former DLNR   00:20:31.200 --> 00:20:36.240 Department of Aquatic Resources biologists  from Molokai, Bill Puleloa who wanted to be   00:20:36.240 --> 00:20:41.200 sure that we held on to this traditional  name of 'ea and don't just call Hawksbills honu ea.   00:20:42.960 --> 00:20:47.680 So drilling down one more time we're going to see  that we have these characters that we can look at   00:20:47.680 --> 00:20:53.040 to tell the difference between these two species.  With the Hawksbill's most obvious character being   00:20:53.040 --> 00:21:00.080 that very pointed beak and that's usually somewhat  visible pretty pretty much it's noticeable and   00:21:00.080 --> 00:21:05.520 then those four prefrontal scales between the eyes.  Compared with two for the Green's which has a much   00:21:05.520 --> 00:21:12.880 flatter face and then the serrated edges of  the carapace are not necessarily as obvious. So   00:21:13.440 --> 00:21:17.840 at the bottom of the photo here you'll see the  difference between the Green and the Hawksbill  00:21:17.840 --> 00:21:23.680 and for the adults the adult female Hawksbills in  particular that we watch over when we do our work   00:21:24.720 --> 00:21:31.600 quite often the edges are not as serrated anymore.  They're worn down but these features in the face   00:21:31.600 --> 00:21:37.840 are very distinguishable but we don't want to  encourage people to try and get so close that you   00:21:37.840 --> 00:21:42.880 bother them to see them. There's another character  difference that's important to us with our   00:21:43.440 --> 00:21:49.440 dawn patrol, one of the programs we run to watch  over sea turtles during their nesting on Maui. And   00:21:49.440 --> 00:21:54.320 that is the tracks they leave in the sand though  Hawksbills have this alternating gate alternating   00:21:55.360 --> 00:22:01.280 one flipper than the other. And the Greens, two  flippers at the same time, symmetrical tracks, very   00:22:01.280 --> 00:22:09.360 distinctive looking and different. So we see a lot  more Greens crawling on the beach and basking now   00:22:09.360 --> 00:22:14.320 and we're getting a lot of people thinking that  those are nesting turtle tracks but especially   00:22:14.320 --> 00:22:19.520 we're much more interested in the Hawksbill tracks  because they don't come up on shore to bask. 00:22:20.560 --> 00:22:26.160 So once again just wanting to emphasize  the importance of the focus of our work on   00:22:26.160 --> 00:22:31.120 both the nesting and foraging grounds  of Maui Hawksbill and Green Sea turtles.   00:22:31.120 --> 00:22:37.440 We do have both for both of these species here  on Maui and then we are part of the Hawaii   00:22:38.560 --> 00:22:44.160 Hawaiian Hawksbill's research network that  encompasses State and Federal agencies and   00:22:45.040 --> 00:22:52.560 those few NGO's, nonprofit hawaiihawksbills.org  and Hawaii Wildlife Fund who are working to help   00:22:52.560 --> 00:22:57.440 study and take care of and protect our Green  Sea turtles and especially our Hawksbills. 00:22:59.440 --> 00:23:04.560 So here's the beauty shot of an in-water  photo of a Hawksbill and as you can see   00:23:05.360 --> 00:23:10.480 this turtle's carapace is not super  obvious the serrated edges for this animal   00:23:10.480 --> 00:23:15.760 but that beak is distinctive, it's a bit more  pointed. You can almost see the four prefrontal   00:23:15.760 --> 00:23:21.840 scales between the eyes showing up that way  too and so this photo is an important    00:23:23.120 --> 00:23:32.240 member this this animal of a photo ID project that  Cheryl King initiated in the early 2000s and it's   00:23:33.280 --> 00:23:40.080 very easy access. So you can see it online at  hawaiihawksbills.org and we are part of a network   00:23:40.080 --> 00:23:46.720 that's encouraging people to submit photos of  Hawksbills to this online site that Cheryl King   00:23:46.720 --> 00:23:52.640 runs. Again not getting so close to Hawksbills  that you cause them to leave or cause them to pay   00:23:52.640 --> 00:23:58.880 attention to you or to be disturbed. Giving them  at least 10 to 15 feet or three to five meters.   00:23:59.760 --> 00:24:05.120 So I'm going to back up, go back to the beginning  of why Hawai'i Wildlife Fund is focused on these   00:24:05.120 --> 00:24:09.840 two species especially Hawksbills which will be  probably the main focus of the rest of my talk.   00:24:10.960 --> 00:24:17.360 And it was the result of the second death of a  Hawksbill turtle laden with eggs she was killed on   00:24:17.360 --> 00:24:25.440 the beach. I mean on the road next to the beach at  Kealia Pond, the highway there and back in '96 there   00:24:25.440 --> 00:24:31.280 was no fence along that road and there is now but  back then Sea turtles could cross that road. Why   00:24:31.280 --> 00:24:37.520 did turtles go to the other side? Well that beach  is severely eroded and they are nesting habitat   00:24:37.520 --> 00:24:43.120 for Hawksills they prefer the vegetation line  and get right up into the vegetation line to nest.   00:24:43.120 --> 00:24:48.960 So this having been the second time that a female  was killed on the highway. Fish and Wildlife   00:24:48.960 --> 00:24:55.920 Service invited us to help watch over these  turtles. Craig Rowland at the time was with Fish   00:24:55.920 --> 00:25:01.280 and Wildlife Service hooked us up with Kathy Smith  who was then the Refuge Manager here on the right   00:25:01.280 --> 00:25:09.520 and we started doing volunteer patrols at Kealia and managed I managed 150 people in the summer of   00:25:09.520 --> 00:25:15.360 96 to walk the beach at Kealia to make sure that  no more females got out onto that road and got   00:25:16.080 --> 00:25:19.840 killed by a car. And then the following year  we worked together with Fish and Wildlife   00:25:19.840 --> 00:25:25.120 Service to erect the dune fence. The fence was  actually designed to help accrete more sand   00:25:25.120 --> 00:25:32.400 to help make the habitat healthier again for  turtle nesting and for other dune life. And   00:25:33.520 --> 00:25:40.800 as it turns out this fence became very successful  at accreting sand and protecting turtles.   00:25:41.520 --> 00:25:46.240 So without this fence the turtle that came  up on the road here I mean came on the beach   00:25:46.240 --> 00:25:52.240 here excuse me, you can see the tracks  would could have gotten right up through   00:25:52.240 --> 00:25:57.040 the vegetation line and onto the highway like the  one that the ones that were killed in '93 and '96.   00:25:58.160 --> 00:26:03.600 So very important this fence and we hope  that our community understands that now we   00:26:03.600 --> 00:26:10.960 have a plastic fence that's made of recycled  plastic. The Fish and Wildlife Service manages   00:26:10.960 --> 00:26:17.600 we helped mend the fence. 18 years worth of  mending fences on that beach with the dune fencing   00:26:17.600 --> 00:26:23.360 together with Fish and Wildlife Service and now  they have taken over the kuleana of managing   00:26:23.360 --> 00:26:30.480 and repairing this fence with only occasional help  from us because this type of fence requires    00:26:30.480 --> 00:26:38.160 technical support to replace and not quite as  easy as throwing up a slat fence but it's very 00:26:38.160 --> 00:26:43.040 it's very important in preventing Hawksbill  sea turtles from getting on the highway.   00:26:44.400 --> 00:26:52.320 So again big picture orientation what do we do  and why do we do it. The bottom line is that we   00:26:52.320 --> 00:26:58.080 collaborate, we conduct research in education and  predominantly we're mostly focused on protection   00:26:58.080 --> 00:27:06.240 it's one of our main objectives on the beaches  so we work under the direction of Fish and   00:27:06.240 --> 00:27:13.120 Wildlife Service and DLNR, NOAA, the Science Center  and the Regional office as I said here's a picture   00:27:13.120 --> 00:27:20.160 of our contact Irene Kanahele and Kelly in between  Cheryl King here and myself and she helped us   00:27:20.160 --> 00:27:28.080 work with NOAA and manage a grant for us for  six years and then Skippy Hau over here our most   00:27:28.080 --> 00:27:33.920 important partner because he's on the beach with  us excavating the nests every single summer and   00:27:34.560 --> 00:27:41.600 a regular hero of our times. Skippy Hau, one of our treasures Department of Aquatic   00:27:41.600 --> 00:27:47.040 Resources Biologist and then some of the other  partners down below we have Fish and Wildlife   00:27:47.040 --> 00:27:54.480 Service representatives, Courtney and Will and  Luke Sundquist and Magdalena Kari--Itua   00:27:54.480 --> 00:28:00.240 both running both our Green Sea turtle and our  Hawksbill turtle program. We've had extraordinary   00:28:00.240 --> 00:28:06.480 team leaders, Suzanne Canja, over here on the right  started the Hawksbill program, together with myself   00:28:06.480 --> 00:28:13.760 and Bill Gilmartin in '96 and then Cheryl King  ran the program for 16 years and Luke Sundquist   00:28:13.760 --> 00:28:18.960 for three seasons after that. Up behind Suzanne  is Rick Long who managed the dawn patrol for   00:28:18.960 --> 00:28:26.560 Fish and Wildlife Service for years before now  it's the responsibility of Hawai'i Wildlife Fund.   00:28:28.000 --> 00:28:33.840 I got to watch the the wonderful presentation  for the anniversary 20-year anniversary of Papahanamokuakea 00:28:33.840 --> 00:28:39.840 Marine National Monument establishment  and it reminded me of the importance of   00:28:41.440 --> 00:28:47.920 honoring our kupuna, our kupuna islands and  our kupuna in life who have essentially   00:28:48.960 --> 00:28:53.840 laid the foundation for us to do the work  we do and so I would be remiss if I didn't   00:28:53.840 --> 00:29:01.440 mention those upon whose shoulders we stand.  George Balazs, former NOAA Fishery Scientist and   00:29:01.440 --> 00:29:07.040 Bill Gilmartin, our co-founder and also a  former National Fisheries scientist there in   00:29:07.040 --> 00:29:12.080 the the photo. George's in one of his favorite  places in the Northwestern Hawaiian islands,   00:29:13.200 --> 00:29:18.960 now known as Papahanamokuakea Marine  National Monument, it's really   00:29:19.760 --> 00:29:24.640 our islands part of our archipelago. And then  below we have Bill Gilmartin in the center   00:29:25.440 --> 00:29:30.240 in the photo with Suzanne Canja (Case) who was at that  time the Director of the Nature Conservancy   00:29:30.240 --> 00:29:36.160 and she is and Sam Gon are gifting Bill  with this beautiful staff that Sam carved   00:29:36.160 --> 00:29:41.280 to acknowledge his lifetime of service  particularly focused on monk seal recovery.   00:29:41.280 --> 00:29:45.920 So these two built the sea turtle program  for 15 years, they worked together up in the   00:29:46.800 --> 00:29:51.840 the Monument at the time called Northwestern  Hawaiian islands running the endangered Bill   00:29:51.840 --> 00:29:58.000 ran the endangered species program and George  launched the sea turtle research program up there.   00:29:59.600 --> 00:30:08.960 Together George and Bill launched our satellite  tracking component of our project and so in '97 we   00:30:10.960 --> 00:30:17.200 outfitted our first sea turtle that we  were involved with with George Balazs   00:30:17.760 --> 00:30:26.480 and on the Big island island of Hawaii  and we also attached radio transmitters.   00:30:26.480 --> 00:30:32.240 So on the left those of you who are viewing this  presentation from Latin America you may if you   00:30:32.240 --> 00:30:39.120 could zoom in you'd recognize Jeff Mangle who  started with us here in the early 2000's and Bill   00:30:39.120 --> 00:30:46.320 beside him on the lava flow on Big island and  on the right myself and Cheryl King in our work. 00:30:48.880 --> 00:30:56.560 We are blessed to have gotten to work with  and continue to work with National Fisheries   00:30:56.560 --> 00:31:01.520 Service, Pacific Island Fisheries Science Center and with many of the individuals within the   00:31:01.520 --> 00:31:07.600 program but especially Alexander Gauss. Alex  came to us in 2015 and started working with us   00:31:08.880 --> 00:31:16.000 here on Maui and we actually got to expand our  satellite transmitter attachments from nesting   00:31:16.560 --> 00:31:19.120 turtles to also foraging turtles in water. 00:31:21.600 --> 00:31:28.400 And this turtle on the left this  this transmitter that Alex came over to   00:31:28.400 --> 00:31:34.080 help us attach to that turtle after she  nested was tracked from her nesting beach   00:31:34.080 --> 00:31:41.600 Paluea and into her nest inter -nesting interval  off Ma'alea where she would rest between nests  00:31:41.600 --> 00:31:48.560 and then when she left us to her foraging grounds  off the west northwest side Honalua zone of Maui. 00:31:51.440 --> 00:31:57.040 We've continued that work this summer we've gotten  to again tag a Hawksbill sea turtle with the help   00:31:57.040 --> 00:32:04.320 of Alex who sent us a transmitter so we could  attach attach it to a female the single Hawksbill   00:32:04.320 --> 00:32:10.960 female who nested on Maui this summer we named  Mama Hua. Hua for the moon phase when we tagged her   00:32:11.920 --> 00:32:19.200 which means egg-shaped moon and the zone here  where she nested the Kailepoa beach area   00:32:19.920 --> 00:32:27.040 and then you can see her track around Haleakala  to her foraging grounds in Kahului Bay this was a   00:32:27.040 --> 00:32:35.760 last pulled this off the website that I'll  make available for you folks to access on   00:32:35.760 --> 00:32:42.160 November 24th. And then I just thought it would be  fun to show you this screenshot I pulled from   00:32:42.160 --> 00:32:49.680 that website that Alex has been loading our  historical tracking data and you can see some   00:32:50.320 --> 00:32:57.680 of the Hawksbill Sea turtles that have been tagged  and had satellite transmitters attached and I   00:32:57.680 --> 00:33:04.480 believe this link down here is being loaded  it already has been loaded onto the end of the   00:33:05.280 --> 00:33:11.360 show or the the handouts or the links section of  this presentation so you can access it yourselves   00:33:11.360 --> 00:33:16.080 and you can see what's happening with our  Hawksbill sea turtles. Not all of them that have   00:33:16.080 --> 00:33:24.960 been instrumented are on this database yet but  quite a few of them are and the main take-home   00:33:26.400 --> 00:33:33.200 message I'd like to emphasize is that in general our Hawksbill Sea turtles do not migrate away   00:33:33.200 --> 00:33:39.040 their their their foraging and nesting grounds  are the Hawaiian islands, the main Hawaiian islands. 00:33:41.360 --> 00:33:46.720 So our work focuses specifically on monitoring  tagging and protection as I said before   00:33:46.720 --> 00:33:52.560 we've got gotten empowered by Endangered Species  Research permits from Fish and Wildlife Service   00:33:52.560 --> 00:34:02.080 and DLNR to do this work so and NOAA Pacific Islands Region and Regional office help support our work   00:34:02.080 --> 00:34:09.920 as well we actually have have a program  that is largely supported by individual donors   00:34:09.920 --> 00:34:14.080 businesses and foundations now and we  could not do this work without their help.   00:34:14.080 --> 00:34:19.920 So we're both running the dawn patrol looking  for the tracks early in the season to set up the   00:34:19.920 --> 00:34:25.760 rest of the season's calendar and watching  over nests and translocating nests if they're   00:34:25.760 --> 00:34:31.920 in danger of tidal inundation like this one here.  And then we're assisting our DLNR counterpart   00:34:31.920 --> 00:34:38.160 Skippy Hau to do nest excavations and  release of hatchlings trapped in nest. 00:34:40.800 --> 00:34:44.080 But really we're powered by  our community by volunteers   00:34:44.960 --> 00:34:50.160 without the help of all of our colleagues, the  interns, the youth groups, the students, the donors   00:34:50.160 --> 00:34:55.840 and the spirit of Aloha, there's no possible way we  could have done the work that we've done for the   00:34:55.840 --> 00:35:05.360 last 24 years. It very much is community-based this  project we have several thousand volunteers who   00:35:05.360 --> 00:35:12.560 have helped us over the years and each summer we  usually have over a hundred who are active at any   00:35:12.560 --> 00:35:22.080 one time. And on the left here we have a great shot  of one of our one of our typical volunteer sort of   00:35:22.080 --> 00:35:29.840 committed individuals in the form of Amy Lemeo, a  photographer and she's standing with Magdalena,   00:35:30.800 --> 00:35:37.600 our Green turtle project manager and marine  debris recovery coordinator and they have just   00:35:39.200 --> 00:35:47.920 gone in the water to disentangle a juvenile green  turtle that had been entangled in an illegal lay   00:35:47.920 --> 00:35:55.520 net. And then watch we watched over as the  lay net was pulled from the water after left   00:35:55.520 --> 00:36:01.200 after being left all night which is against the  law and DOCARE, our enforcement agents came to   00:36:01.760 --> 00:36:07.520 to investigate the case and stop the  individual involved and immediately after   00:36:07.520 --> 00:36:13.120 during during the process of trying to  intervene with the net entanglement.    00:36:13.920 --> 00:36:19.920 Our other part of our other team of of long-term  volunteers and a special shout out to Richard   00:36:19.920 --> 00:36:25.840 Nelson here who's been volunteering for us for  a decade putting in as many camping hours as   00:36:25.840 --> 00:36:33.200 myself and Cheryl King have the nest erupted.  So had that net still been in the water  00:36:34.480 --> 00:36:38.880 it could have possibly even entangled  some of these hatchlings. Our volunteers   00:36:38.880 --> 00:36:43.920 are extraordinarily important, not just in  watching over nest but here at the top photo   00:36:43.920 --> 00:36:50.560 we had a situation in 2018 and we've had the last  three seasons in a row we've had a situation where   00:36:51.120 --> 00:36:58.960 every season nests are threatened by tidal  inundation and the rising sea level coupled with   00:36:59.520 --> 00:37:05.920 the king tides, coupled with summer storm events,  have caused these very high surface tidal events   00:37:05.920 --> 00:37:15.360 where nests like this one here was in danger  of being inundated and so we translocate nests   00:37:15.360 --> 00:37:21.200 in such precarious situations if it's within  the first hours of laying or if it's an imminent   00:37:21.200 --> 00:37:27.680 danger of complete erosion but in the case like  this where we might have a little bit of time.   00:37:27.680 --> 00:37:35.040 Our consultation with our agency partners resulted in us deciding to barricade and put   00:37:35.040 --> 00:37:41.200 this trench around the nest which our volunteers  contributed to. So a little bit more about our   00:37:41.200 --> 00:37:47.120 programs and what we do. Specifically again  as I said we we are now coordinating the dawn   00:37:47.120 --> 00:37:53.440 patrol which is essential for the success  of our finding the nests, walking the beaches   00:37:54.480 --> 00:38:02.000 of Maui. We have nine beaches that we patrolled  this past summer typically about six nesting   00:38:02.000 --> 00:38:10.240 beaches are monitored by us in any one year.  We have Hawksbills in red and Green turtle nesting   00:38:10.240 --> 00:38:17.760 sites in green on this picture and the ones  on east Maui we don't monitor and we don't   00:38:17.760 --> 00:38:23.360 have the resources to do beach patrols  but we hope to change that this coming summer   00:38:24.400 --> 00:38:31.920 if we are blessed with some funding to expand and  support some of our Hana volunteers who already   00:38:31.920 --> 00:38:38.480 are part of our team to help us work over there.   But we also are regularly patrolling these beaches   00:38:38.480 --> 00:38:45.840 these south Maui beaches from Ma'aleaa all the way  down here to here to Oneawa or Big beach   00:38:46.560 --> 00:38:52.720 for Hawksbill turtles, Green turtles also nest  on the north shore of Maui and a particular   00:38:52.720 --> 00:38:58.560 individual famous individual nest on the  West side but I won't be going into detail   00:38:58.560 --> 00:39:03.920 about Green turtle nest and our involvement  with them today I simply don't have time   00:39:03.920 --> 00:39:09.520 that's another story and a phenomenal story to  tell about especially this past summer working   00:39:09.520 --> 00:39:15.520 with Green turtle nests and translocating this to  save them from being eroded out with the help of   00:39:16.640 --> 00:39:22.240 of our colleagues with the Maui Ocean Center Marine  Institute. So I'm just going to show you a few   00:39:22.240 --> 00:39:26.240 shots of some of our typical and most important  beaches. I'm not going to show you all the   00:39:26.240 --> 00:39:31.760 beaches that we've patrolled or patrol but most  important in particular the Ma'aleaa Kealia beach   00:39:31.760 --> 00:39:37.520 as I mentioned earlier where those two Hawksbills  were killed and this is a Haycraft beach park at   00:39:37.520 --> 00:39:43.120 Ma'alaea and the palm mouth outlet pay attention  to this orange arrow over here because it picks up   00:39:43.120 --> 00:39:47.760 again over here and then we walk all the way  down to Sugar beach this is a two and a half   00:39:47.760 --> 00:39:54.640 mile stretch of beach and again severely eroded  habitat not the best for sea turtles to nest on   00:39:54.640 --> 00:40:00.720 and can be dangerous if they get through  that fence that keeps them off the highway   00:40:02.720 --> 00:40:08.240 but very important nesting beach in terms of  frequency of use. Another very important beach   00:40:08.240 --> 00:40:15.120 I'm just giving you a few highlights not all the  beaches that we patrol is Kawililipoa in central Kihei is a   00:40:15.120 --> 00:40:20.480 little bit more urbanized area and as you  can see it's in the heart of central Kihei 00:40:22.960 --> 00:40:30.800 and then one of our most successful places  for sea turtles nests for Hawksbills to nest the   00:40:30.800 --> 00:40:39.920 Oneloa State park at Makena beach and Pu'u Olai.  We did have green nesting turtles on Maui on the   00:40:39.920 --> 00:40:44.880 North Shore and I'm just adding a couple of shots  of some of the beaches we monitored this past   00:40:44.880 --> 00:40:51.920 summer Hamakuapoko and Baldwin and Paia Bay and  I want to acknowledge those amazing volunteers who   00:40:51.920 --> 00:40:57.040 helped us monitor all these nests and walk  these beaches all summer and into the fall.   00:40:57.840 --> 00:41:05.360 So this past summer these are the locations for  our nest in Kihei in this zone and the green   00:41:05.360 --> 00:41:12.400 turtles on the North Shore of Maui and again I'll  be saving the Green turtle story for another day.   00:41:13.760 --> 00:41:19.840 So typical incubation approximately 60 days   that's about the average for Hawksbills on Maui   00:41:20.400 --> 00:41:29.600 and if the turtles survive the incubation without  problems within the nest and begin to hatch out.   00:41:31.520 --> 00:41:38.320 Then we also watch over them when they hatch  out I just wanted to also put this shot here   00:41:38.320 --> 00:41:44.720 to remind me to share about a link that  we also have at the end of this presentation   00:41:45.440 --> 00:41:51.120 some research that has been conducted on  vocalizations that hatchlings are making   00:41:51.120 --> 00:42:00.400 and incubating eggs are making in the nest because  this was a a phenomenal opportunity for us to   00:42:00.400 --> 00:42:06.080 share with our volunteers who are watching over  the nest the to have that connection with the   00:42:07.600 --> 00:42:11.680 the hatchlings as they're growing and  understanding that they can even hear us   00:42:11.680 --> 00:42:18.320 human voices can penetrate into the  nest cavity. Watching over the nest is a   00:42:19.520 --> 00:42:26.960 a long and and involved process and  typically we have people around the clock   00:42:26.960 --> 00:42:33.120 all day and all night watching over the nest.  As it gets close to eruption and ideally the   00:42:34.000 --> 00:42:40.240 hatchlings will cue on the lighter sky horizon  either at sunset or with the starlight or with   00:42:40.240 --> 00:42:44.560 moonlight like these hatchlings are doing  right down here at the bottom of this   00:42:45.600 --> 00:42:50.160 shot by Ben Caswell, one of our other  amazing photographer volunteers.   00:42:51.920 --> 00:42:57.120 However we do have some problems with lighting  and if there's lighting on the mauka side or   00:42:57.120 --> 00:43:04.560 behind the nest then it can cause the hatchlings  to go the wrong way and not go to the ocean   00:43:05.120 --> 00:43:12.160 and we've been working on reducing lighting  issues of beaches on Maui for more than a decade.   00:43:12.160 --> 00:43:18.000 And in fact had to take it to the next  level with protecting our turtles all   00:43:18.000 --> 00:43:24.160 over Maui and even our seabirds in the  filing of a lawsuit with our co-plaintiff   00:43:24.160 --> 00:43:29.760 Conservation Council of Hawai'i, Earthjustice,  our defenders against the County of Maui   00:43:30.480 --> 00:43:37.920 because in 2018 these LED street lights were  being installed nearly 5 000 of them all   00:43:37.920 --> 00:43:43.200 over the island and and the installation  started before an environmental assessment   00:43:44.080 --> 00:43:49.760 had been conducted. So if hatchlings don't  go to the ocean and go toward light instead   00:43:50.320 --> 00:43:54.800 which has happened in the past here  on Maui they can get run over by cars. 00:43:57.360 --> 00:44:01.200 Other threats that we protect the hatchlings  from with our nest, our nest watch crew   00:44:02.160 --> 00:44:09.280 are native ghost crab and alien predators  like this mongoose, right here on top of a nest   00:44:10.480 --> 00:44:14.160 which will dig in and eat the eggs. The ghost  crabs will get the hatchlings as they're   00:44:14.160 --> 00:44:19.680 headed to the water and then as I already  talked about we have to protect the nests   00:44:19.680 --> 00:44:25.440 sometimes from tidal inundation. Another major  challenge to our Hawksbill hatchlings here on Maui,   00:44:25.440 --> 00:44:32.000 some nests in particular are threatened with  native and alien grasses going around and into the   00:44:32.000 --> 00:44:41.680 nest can trap the hatchings. Ideally we get the mass  emergence that looks like this with 60 to 100   00:44:41.680 --> 00:44:48.880 or more hatchlings coming out all at once which is  what they're best adapted and greatest success if   00:44:48.880 --> 00:44:56.000 more of them come out at once. But typically  and unfortunately more often we'll see one one   00:44:56.000 --> 00:45:02.160 or just a few coming out at a time and again this  is partly because of degraded nesting habitat   00:45:03.200 --> 00:45:10.400 in some of our beaches which I'll show you in  a moment and then after first emergence or main   00:45:10.400 --> 00:45:17.280 emergence, we start the clock for our excavation  for rescuing of trapped hatchlings particularly   00:45:17.280 --> 00:45:23.120 on those beaches that are severely impacted by  the alien vegetation, which would which would   00:45:23.120 --> 00:45:29.680 perish in the nest if we didn't intervene. So we  work with Skippy and and we help excavate the   00:45:29.680 --> 00:45:37.840 nest here we have Luke Sundquist on the right and  Amanda Lloyd, Mandy is our newest project assistant   00:45:37.840 --> 00:45:45.840 and she is helping be with an excavation as one  of our great volunteer photographers looks on. 00:45:49.360 --> 00:45:59.600 I'm just gonna a little video Skippy measuring  hatchlings at an excavation and Magda   00:46:00.480 --> 00:46:08.480 assisting and myself assisting in the excavation  and the release this was just this past 00:46:09.200 --> 00:46:13.840 summer. Okay 00:46:20.320 --> 00:46:27.200 So Mandy Lloyd made that video for us  which which we find extremely important   00:46:27.200 --> 00:46:32.880 in the age of COVID we couldn't have as many  people at the nest as we've had in the past   00:46:32.880 --> 00:46:38.960 or to participate in the excavations to protect  everybody's health and so we would make videos   00:46:38.960 --> 00:46:44.800 available online so our volunteers could see the  excavations and the hatchlings emerging which is   00:46:44.800 --> 00:46:47.120 what so many of them are are wanting to see. 00:46:49.200 --> 00:46:52.560 Another big challenge with our  sea turtles particularly on    00:46:53.200 --> 00:47:00.400 Maui, the opala or the trash in the nests and we  typically find once we're excavating the nest   00:47:00.960 --> 00:47:06.720 that there has been beach trash incorporated or  marine debris. Sometimes it's sadly more often   00:47:06.720 --> 00:47:14.640 it's from us but it can be from arriving from  the high seas. The Marine Debris Recovery Program   00:47:14.640 --> 00:47:20.560 that we started was partly as a response to  protecting nesting habitat for green turtles   00:47:20.560 --> 00:47:27.120 and we have removed more than 360 tons between  Hawaii island and Maui and 20 years of work   00:47:28.160 --> 00:47:32.960 but that's another story. I'm going to focus  pretty tightly on our Hawksbill nesting   00:47:34.000 --> 00:47:40.080 program so we have some time for questions and  just give you a an overview of where we are to   00:47:40.080 --> 00:47:48.080 date. Luke Sundquist put together some graphs from our season. So we were able to pull   00:47:48.080 --> 00:47:52.880 information together season just ended the  weekend after Thanksgiving so we scrambled to pull   00:47:52.880 --> 00:47:59.680 together some visuals for you folks. We've  got more than 103 nests that we've monitored and   00:47:59.680 --> 00:48:07.520 protected. Tagged 12 Hawksbills and satellite tracked  eight of them to their foraging grounds.   00:48:08.320 --> 00:48:15.520 That's just what we have done here that doesn't  include on Hawaii island or what Alex Dallas   00:48:15.520 --> 00:48:20.560 has done it with other prop programs. That's  just what our team has helped with and we've   00:48:20.560 --> 00:48:25.920 helped more than ten thousand hatchlings make it  safely to the ocean this summer. As I said more   00:48:25.920 --> 00:48:30.960 than a hundred volunteers were active giving more  than three thousand hours patrolling our beaches   00:48:30.960 --> 00:48:38.000 watching over nests typically they spend between  100 and 200 hours per person some of these   00:48:39.280 --> 00:48:44.960 volunteers, our top volunteers will spend that  much time on the beach in the hot sun or camping   00:48:44.960 --> 00:48:53.600 all night. We had five Hawksbill nests with  900 eggs produced and a 450 hatchlings emerging   00:48:53.600 --> 00:48:59.120 which gives us about a 50 percent hatching  success this summer. So we added that to   00:49:00.240 --> 00:49:09.280 the '96 all the way back to '96 data to look  at some of the long-term trends. I want to call   00:49:09.280 --> 00:49:17.600 your attention to the beaches on the left, they're  color-coded. So this purple area here these are   00:49:17.600 --> 00:49:24.160 Oneloa or Big Beach state park and Makena   these are hatching success I mean hatchling   00:49:24.160 --> 00:49:32.960 successes over time with three turtles these  are the turtle names on the left and then   00:49:32.960 --> 00:49:42.000 Palau'ea another one of our important nesting  beaches. Kalepolepo, Kawililipoa and Kealia, with having some   00:49:42.000 --> 00:49:48.800 zero success so obviously some very important  differences between our our nesting beaches 00:49:51.120 --> 00:50:00.960 and mean annual hatching success over the years  highly variable variable but we have only one   00:50:00.960 --> 00:50:08.640 or two Hawksbills nesting per year so we  have a very small sample size. Super rare   00:50:09.360 --> 00:50:14.480 events and super rare  turtles but we do we are able to   00:50:15.600 --> 00:50:22.480 detect some trends and a slight increase in  clutch size with carapace length of the female   00:50:23.120 --> 00:50:30.960 and then the mean number of eggs by clutch   in terms of order laid beginning to look like   00:50:30.960 --> 00:50:37.680 a slight decrease by the end of the season  by the fifth clutch and the mean 00:50:37.680 --> 00:50:42.480 incubation time to first emergence by nesting  beach big differences between Kawililipoa and   00:50:43.280 --> 00:50:49.680 Little and Big Beach Oneloa state park at  Makena these beaches are very different with    00:50:49.680 --> 00:50:57.920 one as I showed you in the earlier slides being  wide white sandy beach and Kawililipoa being inundated   00:50:57.920 --> 00:51:04.320 and overgrown with native and mostly native  grasses because it's a State beach reserve that is   00:51:05.120 --> 00:51:12.080 being managed for recovery of native plants  as well as turtles. And then the big picture   00:51:12.080 --> 00:51:19.120 of our Hawksbills. How many females and how many  nests per year and it's small as you can see   00:51:20.160 --> 00:51:28.320 typically at averages about one female per year  and the nests typically the average is   00:51:28.320 --> 00:51:35.280 about four with as many as 12 in a particular  year very small very small number of Hawksbills   00:51:35.280 --> 00:51:40.560 on Maui. And I'm going to quickly jump over to  our Green turtle project because I see I've   00:51:41.520 --> 00:51:46.160 almost run out of time and I want to leave time  for questions but we do have another important   00:51:46.160 --> 00:51:51.600 program that volunteers can participate in  and we would love people who are on this   00:51:51.600 --> 00:51:57.920 webinar who want to volunteer to help protect  turtles to help us we can do it ourselves by   00:51:58.720 --> 00:52:03.840 behaving with respect around green turtles which  are increasing in numbers on our beaches and   00:52:03.840 --> 00:52:09.120 they're basking. They're coming up on the beaches  to rest, to warm up, to avoid predators, to conserve   00:52:09.120 --> 00:52:15.920 energy more and more and one of our most important  beaches for this is Ho'okipa and we kept that name   00:52:15.920 --> 00:52:20.640 secret for many years because we didn't want  to encourage people to go there but since   00:52:21.360 --> 00:52:26.240 that's that's not a secret anymore  and that beach location has gone viral   00:52:26.800 --> 00:52:31.200 we want people to understand that we  have been protecting and watching over   00:52:31.200 --> 00:52:37.520 the green turtles there since 2008 when Cheryl  King initiated a photo ID project which we still   00:52:38.480 --> 00:52:44.800 have students working on today. We documented  more than 700 people a day coming to this beach 00:52:44.800 --> 00:52:51.440 just to view the turtles with up to  184 green turtles basking at one time yeah   00:52:52.400 --> 00:52:59.520 a lot. So volunteers, interns, team  member Magdalena Peneatua over here    00:52:59.520 --> 00:53:05.600 are essential for our ability to help educate  people at this site we also are participants in   00:53:05.600 --> 00:53:10.800 the stranding network through the Marine  Ocean, the Maui Ocean Center Marine Institute   00:53:11.360 --> 00:53:17.040 and we have initiated a couple of additional  projects there to scan for pit tags on Green   00:53:17.040 --> 00:53:25.920 turtles and photo ID as I said together with a  couple of former students from Italy. Two quick   00:53:26.480 --> 00:53:31.360 quick updates about where we're going.   We have a beautiful sign that has just   00:53:31.360 --> 00:53:38.480 been finished and to be placed on the area  of Hamakua coast on Big island, Hawaii island   00:53:39.200 --> 00:53:45.440 and our team over there headed up by Megan  Lamson and Bill conceived of this sign and   00:53:46.640 --> 00:53:53.200 Patrick Ching, our renowned and and good  friend marine and wildlife artist of Hawaii   00:53:53.760 --> 00:54:01.760 designed the sign and was funded by a grant  from Hawaii County and so we're trying to   00:54:01.760 --> 00:54:07.200 help educate the world about the presence of  Hawksbills. We're not as secret about where they   00:54:07.200 --> 00:54:12.400 are as we used to be because if people don't know  they can't help. We also have produced curriculum   00:54:12.400 --> 00:54:18.160 one of our newest projects is Hawksbill  sea turtle curriculum, which we've produced   00:54:18.160 --> 00:54:23.520 and is available online at this site and also  this link up yet in the handouts at the end of   00:54:23.520 --> 00:54:30.800 the presentation and so it's a seventh seventh  and eighth grade level curriculum and narrated   00:54:30.800 --> 00:54:35.920 by one of our team members on Hawaii island  Patty Barnes, so you can access that there.   00:54:37.280 --> 00:54:44.800 And finally upcoming we have a big project in  the works as Allen mentioned. We are going to be   00:54:45.440 --> 00:54:51.120 opening a Wildlife Discovery Center, Hawai'i Wildlife Discovery Center at Whalers Village in   00:54:51.120 --> 00:54:58.240 Ka'anapali and here's the the Center. My cursor is  on the building in the background the makai side   00:54:58.240 --> 00:55:03.280 of the lot and that top floor is going  to be half of which 5000 square feet   00:55:03.280 --> 00:55:08.400 will be the Discovery Center. So we'll have  another great outlet for teaching about   00:55:08.400 --> 00:55:15.520 our Sea turtles, in collaboration with our  Humpback Whale Sanctuary and all of our partners   00:55:15.520 --> 00:55:22.560 and the Whalers Village, Brookfield Properties  sponsoring it. It will also be decked out with   00:55:22.560 --> 00:55:28.400 beautiful murals by Patrick Ching both inside and  outside and finally I'll just bounce through and   00:55:29.440 --> 00:55:34.720 give you so I give folks time for questions  how you can help sea turtles our friends at   00:55:34.720 --> 00:55:40.720 Divers for turtles.com published this list of  steps you can take to help protect turtles.   00:55:41.600 --> 00:55:46.240 Go ahead and visit tooraretowear.org to learn  more about how to avoid buying turtle shell   00:55:46.240 --> 00:55:52.720 products, clean a beach, reduce your plastic,  dive turtle friendly and take care of the reef.   00:55:52.720 --> 00:55:59.280 You can donate to their sea turtle project  or you can donate to ours. All turtle projects   00:55:59.280 --> 00:56:04.880 are very labor intensive we we really need  all the help we can get all over the world.   00:56:06.400 --> 00:56:13.440 Locally sign up to volunteer with us, clean up your  beaches and reefs and learn, educate, vote, take care   00:56:13.440 --> 00:56:18.720 of what you love, follow us, join us in our social  media to learn more about events that we're   00:56:18.720 --> 00:56:29.840 hosting and how you can help us. You can go to  these links to learn more and Mahalo for your time. 00:56:38.080 --> 00:56:45.360 Mahalo Hannah, All right so we're kind of we probably have time  for just one question but folks feel free   00:56:45.360 --> 00:56:51.920 to submit more questions into the question box  and we can send those questions over to Hannah   00:56:51.920 --> 00:56:57.840 and we will share them with you all via email  that you registered with for this webinar. But 00:57:00.160 --> 00:57:02.800 for that one question Hannah it is 00:57:06.320 --> 00:57:11.840 okay one moment   00:57:13.280 --> 00:57:20.320 Okay. Could you let us know the population  size of Hawai'i Hawksbill and Green Sea turtles.   00:57:22.080 --> 00:57:31.440 So our best estimate of the population size  and that is absolutely a research project that is   00:57:31.440 --> 00:57:37.200 continuing and underway with our colleagues  at Pacific Island Fisheries Science Center   00:57:37.200 --> 00:57:43.040 it's estimated there may be around 100 nesting  females in our Hawaiian Hawksbill population   00:57:43.040 --> 00:57:51.840 probably the smallest most isolated sea turtle  population in the world and but maybe the   00:57:51.840 --> 00:57:58.000 most important in the Central Pacific. The Green  turtle population is increasing although it is    00:57:58.800 --> 00:58:05.040 the future is very uncertain because of the loss  of the most important nesting grounds up in   00:58:07.120 --> 00:58:14.720 the Papahanamokuakea Marine Monument  with Hurricane Wailaka in 2018, we lost   00:58:14.720 --> 00:58:20.560 significant nesting habitat at Tern  island but the population of Green turtles   00:58:21.760 --> 00:58:29.040 but that the the last estimate that I had heard  was around about close to a thousand nesting   00:58:29.040 --> 00:58:36.800 per season and again this is pre-Wailaka when the habitat up there was healthy   00:58:37.360 --> 00:58:43.120 but I defer to my colleagues on the population  estimates those are definitely challenging   00:58:44.000 --> 00:58:47.360 numbers and we're still very  much working on that answer.   00:58:48.960 --> 00:58:53.520 Awesome. Thank you Hannah and we did get a few  other questions but we'll save them and we'll   00:58:53.520 --> 00:58:58.480 send it to Hannah and we'll get all the answers  back to you folks hopefully within a week or so   00:58:58.480 --> 00:59:05.760 but now i'm going to pass it on to Allen Tom who  will finish off our webinar. Okay so again I want   00:59:05.760 --> 00:59:12.400 to thank Hannah Bernard for that wonderful talk.  I forgot to mention she was named one of   00:59:12.400 --> 00:59:17.920 Maui's most influential people, people who made  a difference and I think for those of you who are   00:59:17.920 --> 00:59:24.720 on the webinar you see why she was awarded that  title and Hannah you were such a hit based on all   00:59:24.720 --> 00:59:29.520 the questions I'm seeing in the chat box, I'm going  to invite you back maybe next fall you could talk   00:59:29.520 --> 00:59:33.600 about dolphins or some of the other work you do  because I know this is just the tip of the iceberg   00:59:33.600 --> 00:59:39.200 on what you do. And so let me just wrap up folks  don't hang up just yet I want to mention that all   00:59:39.200 --> 00:59:45.520 of these webinars we're doing including this  one today is then has been recorded as soon as   00:59:45.520 --> 00:59:51.600 I get around to closed captioning it it will get  onto the webinar archive that you see listed here   00:59:51.600 --> 00:59:56.000 and you will all be getting those of you who  registered getting a email notification that   00:59:56.000 --> 01:00:01.840 the webinar is available so all the information  that Hannah just mentioned will be in this webinar.   01:00:02.480 --> 01:00:09.280 Next slide. And I would say as we are waiting for  the next slide, okay you will also be getting a   01:00:09.280 --> 01:00:16.240 Certificate of Attendance so folks that attended  this webinar, we'll get this certificate hopefully   01:00:16.240 --> 01:00:24.000 within the next 24 hours, we will be sending this  out I believe this also counts as one credit of 01:00:24.960 --> 01:00:30.800 informational webinar series training, so you get  so one contact hour of professional development is   01:00:30.800 --> 01:00:39.200 also available to you from attending this webinar.  Next slide please. And we do want you to take a   01:00:39.200 --> 01:00:45.840 survey which is attached to this webinar so please  let us know your thoughts about future topics,   01:00:45.840 --> 01:00:51.680 what you did or didn't like about the webinar, I  couldn't hear, it was too fast, whatever it might be,   01:00:51.680 --> 01:00:57.760 please let us know because we are working to make  these webinars more useful for people. Next Slide.   01:00:59.520 --> 01:01:05.840 And I will also say that we do have some  webinars coming up. In January we have Jane Au,   01:01:05.840 --> 01:01:10.080 she will talk about the Hawaiian religious  understandings of the ocean, the importance   01:01:10.080 --> 01:01:16.800 of the ocean to Native Hawaiians. And then  followed by that in February we have Maka'ala Kaaumoana,   01:01:16.800 --> 01:01:23.520 she is also a sanctuary advisory council  member, talking about a place on Kauai, Hanalei. And   01:01:23.520 --> 01:01:31.600 she'll talk about the watershed about that area.  We did just add another webinar on March 24th,   01:01:32.560 --> 01:01:38.960 Dr. Heather Ward will talk about he'e or  cephalopods or octopi, so please join us for those.   01:01:38.960 --> 01:01:44.800 Again I want to thank Hannah, it's so interesting  that humans have been responsible for the   01:01:44.800 --> 01:01:52.560 extinction and threatened status of a lot of  animals and so it's great to see humans now making   01:01:52.560 --> 01:01:57.200 a difference in bringing those animals back from  extinction, so people like Hannah Bernard thank   01:01:57.200 --> 01:02:03.040 you so much. And again thank you to all of you for  joining us because your interest is going to help   01:02:03.760 --> 01:02:08.880 this species recover and if you're interested  Hawaii Wildlife Fund go to that home page you   01:02:08.880 --> 01:02:14.160 can talk to Hannah directly. I know many of you  have asked how can you volunteer and participate,   01:02:15.280 --> 01:02:20.560 go to the Hawaii Wildlife Fund homepage and  that's where you will find Miss Bernard. So again   01:02:20.560 --> 01:02:33.840 thank you all for attending and thank you  Hannah and we look forward to future workshops. 01:02:33.340 --> 01:02:33.840 Bye Bye, Aloha. 01:02:33.840 --> 01:02:35.840