COURTESY OF KIRK LEE AEDER
During Turtle Independence Day at the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel last July 4, Steven Smith helped two children carry a turtle to be released into the sea.
Big Isle turtles
win independence
MAUNA LANI RESORT, Hawaii >> Nine young green sea turtles will win their freedom on the Fourth of July, or Turtle Independence Day on the Big Island.
Since 1990, Mauna Lani Bay Hotel has been releasing 3-year-old green sea turtles into the ocean on July 4. Hotel cultural director Danny Akaka (not the U.S. senator) is credited with picking the day and giving the event its name.
As many as 1,500 people gather every year, some from the mainland scheduling their vacation to be here for the event, said hotel biologist Marty Wisner. About half are local residents, such as Mayor Harry Kim, who comes every year not as a celebrity participant but as a bystander in the audience, Wisner said.
Beginning at 8:30 a.m., the festivities will include games, face painting, balloon animals, canoe rides and people dressed as "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."
"It's packed. It's like a big carnival," Wisner said.
At 9:30 a.m., selected turtles, prechecked to be sure they are healthy, are carried by children across the beach to the ocean in webbed "stretchers."
COURTESY OF KIRK LEE AEDER
At the same event, children viewed 3-year-old green sea turtles during a "parade" in which the creatures were carried to the sea for release.
The halau of kumu hula John Kaimikaua will perform a traditional hula portraying the supernatural turtles Eaea from the Big Island and Kaiaka from Molokai.
These turtles were so large they looked like islands when they surfaced, and they traditionally saved people from rough seas, Kaimikaua said.
The hula will be performed by women because the soothing melody of the chant was often used like a lullaby by mothers to calm their children, he said.
Like hawksbill and leatherback sea turtles, green sea turtles are classified as endangered under federal law. That strictly regulates how people can interact with them.
At any given time, there are 10 to 20 green sea turtles in the shoreline waters of Mauna Lani. Curious turtles will swim right up to people snorkeling, Wisner said. That's OK, but it is illegal for people to handle or feed them, he said.
Baby green turtles are black, and mature ones have the well-known, black-and-red "tortoise shell" appearance. They are called "green" because of the color of their fat, derived from eating algae, Wisner said.
Before the U.S. Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973, Sea Life Park at Waimanalo had a population of the turtles. When new ones hatched, they were released into the sea, where they are estimated at having a one in 1,000 chance of surviving to adulthood.
ROD THOMPSON / RTHOMPSON@STARBULLETIN.COM
This 3-year-old green sea turtle at the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel was renamed Kilo Lani (Star Gazer) for his release into the ocean this Friday.
Survivors may live to age 100, but there are few of them.
The 19 shallow ponds at Mauna Lani offered an ideal place for baby turtles to grow up when the first ones arrived in 1989. Just a year later, the biggest ones were outgrowing the ponds, and Akaka thought of Independence Day.
The success of the pond-rearing was shown this spring when Mauna Lani Honu (turtle) No. 22270 returned from a nine-month, 3,000-mile swim around the Hawaiian Islands tracked by a transmitter glued to his back.
"That's pretty good for a turtle that never saw the ocean until he was 3 years old," Wisner said.
On Friday, nine more turtles will be released: six from the shore, including one with a transmitter, and three from an offshore boat, each with a transmitter.
Another sign of success may be the turtles "basking," or lying in the sun for hours. Recent Hawaii Preparatory Academy graduate Jill Quaintance wrote a research paper on the behavior, which has been noted in West Hawaii for only 10 to 15 years, she said, about as long as Mauna Lani turtle releases have taken place.
A sign of the educational value of Mauna Lani's efforts was the young boy who came up to Wisner and told him he'd learned during a school outing to Mauna Lani a year before that eating turtle meat is illegal.
The boy said he had gone home and told his turtle-eating father, "You can't do that anymore."
