A little blog about my summer in Hawaii volunteering for the Hawksbill Turtle Recovery Project
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Week 6
Apua Point
Brandon at Keahou!
This last trip really made me realize how lucky I am to be spending my summer in Hawaii living my dream job. We hiked to a back country beach called Apua and hiked over 60 miles in 5 days. The hike to Apua point is 6.6 miles and then we have to day check a beach called Halape thats 5 miles away (10 miles round trip). Then when we do our hourly beach checks, we get an additional 5 miles a day since the beach is so long! We've had some new volunteers join the project, so this trip I was paired up with Brandon and Brennan (confusing, I know). Brandon just graduated from Slippery Rock (PA) this May and Brennan is my age and goes to school in Alaska. It's been super cool getting to know new people out here in the field because to stay up at night all you have is each other, so you start telling stories and asking questions and you get to know each other really fast. You learn a lot about each other but you also learn a lot about yourself too! There's been so many instances where Brandon and I look at each other and just say, "Wow…we are so lucky to be here." At night we were talking and someone asked what your dream job would be, and I think what I'm doing now is definitely my dream job. I'm so thankful I have this opportunity, that I was selected to be a volunteer, and most importantly that my mom and dad supported me and let me do this. There's no way this would be possible without them, so mom and dad if you're reading this, I can't thank you guys enough for this trip and letting me live my dream.
Halape
We saw lots of cool stuff in Apua on our hikes!
Brandon, me, Brennan, and Jeddy before hiking out to Apua!
-Brandon and I saw a huge eel in the rocks during low tide, like I'm talking at least 4 feet long and it was super thick too…so gross.
-We saw an albino mongoose…weird, right?
-We had some pretty epic sunsets!
-There's a fresh water crack at Halape where we day check. It's filled with fresh water runoff from the mountain and it's mixed with salt water from the ground and it's seriously the most refreshing thing ever…You finish your 5-mile hike and jump in the cool water, and after you feel so refreshed and clean, it's so rewarding!
Emma, This is great and valuable work that you and your colleagues are doing, not just for the Hawksbills, but environmentally for everyone now and those who will come after us as well. And it appears that you're having a good time while doing this. You deserve acknowledgement for the work you do. To follow what you're doing I've done a little research and I have questions.
In week 3 you posted on your blog a photo of a sign on a beach with a warning about threats to Honu'ea. I learned elsewhere Hawksbills are scientifically named Eretmochelys imbricata. Imbricata is the root word of imbrication or the overlapping of the edges of tiles in a decorative pattern. That pattern is a characteristic of the shells of turtles, and makes the turtles valuable as decoration of various kinds and hence vulnerable.
That sign on the beach indicated some other significant risks to Hawksbills, but it didn't say anything about systemic threats beyond being victims of hunting for their shells, meat, and eggs or people driving on the beach.
So, here are two questions. One, what's the current assessment among your colleagues about anthropogenic habitat threats – plastics, fishing nets, the vast amounts of water-borne debris, ocean acidification as well as coral reef decline and destruction from climate change? And what about runoff from industrial-agricultural land and coastal development – fertilizers, herbicides, petroleum-polluted effluents, and other forms of waste-water carrying various toxins?
The second question is: given that Hawksbills suffer from all these very serious threats and are suffering rapid population decline, but the interests that benefit by continuing their destructive practices are unlikely to be stopped or even slowed anytime soon, is there hope for the Hawksbill? Or even for the oceans?
Keep up the good work. And it is good – it is good to work and fight against the destructive effects of greed, vanity and ignorance.
Yeah, your parents are pretty cool - I like 'em. :-)
ReplyDeleteEmma,
ReplyDeleteThis is great and valuable work that you and your colleagues are doing, not just for the Hawksbills, but environmentally for everyone now and those who will come after us as well. And it appears that you're having a good time while doing this. You deserve acknowledgement for the work you do. To follow what you're doing I've done a little research and I have questions.
In week 3 you posted on your blog a photo of a sign on a beach with a warning about threats to Honu'ea. I learned elsewhere Hawksbills are scientifically named Eretmochelys imbricata. Imbricata is the root word of imbrication or the overlapping of the edges of tiles in a decorative pattern. That pattern is a characteristic of the shells of turtles, and makes the turtles valuable as decoration of various kinds and hence vulnerable.
That sign on the beach indicated some other significant risks to Hawksbills, but it didn't say anything about systemic threats beyond being victims of hunting for their shells, meat, and eggs or people driving on the beach.
So, here are two questions. One, what's the current assessment among your colleagues about anthropogenic habitat threats – plastics, fishing nets, the vast amounts of water-borne debris, ocean acidification as well as coral reef decline and destruction from climate change? And what about runoff from industrial-agricultural land and coastal development – fertilizers, herbicides, petroleum-polluted effluents, and other forms of waste-water carrying various toxins?
The second question is: given that Hawksbills suffer from all these very serious threats and are suffering rapid population decline, but the interests that benefit by continuing their destructive practices are unlikely to be stopped or even slowed anytime soon, is there hope for the Hawksbill? Or even for the oceans?
Keep up the good work. And it is good – it is good to work and fight against the destructive effects of greed, vanity and ignorance.