Blue Planet Journey

  Although my interest in sea turtles was always listed on my resume, I have to admit it leaned more toward a professional hobby. I never applied for a sea turtle grant. I never published a sea turtle paper (although I do have a completed manuscript that I never submitted for publication on human impacts to green turtle behavior in Hawaii). And I did attend 2 meetings of the International Sea Turtle Symposium on Biology and Conservation, once in San Diego, and once in Brisbane, Australia. Posing by one of my posters in Brisbane! Most surprising (to me), I did once try to get myself stranded for a summer on French Frigate Shoals, a speck of sand in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, to tag and measured green sea turtles (that’s another story). I remember the spark that ignited my interest in sea turtles. I was diving with naturalist Bob Kern in Hanauma Bay, Hawaii (a marine reserve), when we spotted a young honu (the Hawaiian name for a green turtle) swimming toward us. We paused, n...

Visitors observing basking green turtles, Oahu, Hawaii. Anthropogenic disturbances to foraging and resting green turtles ( Chelonia mydas ) around O`ahu: potential effects and assessment of harassment  Robert H. Schmidt  Abstract: Hawaiian green turtles are listed as a threatened species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The Hawaiian population of green turtles is rather unique in that the nesting site (French Frigate Shoals) is protected, usually uninhabited, and without many terrestrial predators. Juveniles and adults over 35 cm SCL reside in the nearshore habitats surrounding the populated islands, including O`ahu. These animals are the future breeders who have survived the initial high-mortality pelagic stage. I reviewed non-lethal, anthropogenic factors that could compromise their energy intake, predation risk, or risk of being subjected to detrimental human contact. My findings were inconclusive. Green turtle behavior and turtle responses to human activitie...

Small green sea turtle in St. Kitts.  Note the flipper tags.  It also seems like this turtle may have suffered an earlier injury, with a "bite-like" portion of the carapace missing. As we've visited the eastern and western Caribbean island nations and territories, Caroline and I have seen numerous references to or signs of sea turtles.  Cruise ships take advantage of the widespread interest, advertising excursions noting the possibility of seeing turtles while snorkeling. Note who Celebrity chooses to feature on their excursion brochures! This is a summary of the sea turtle observations we made. Puerto Rico In San Juan, we came across numerous signs indicating that turtles nest on the beach.  Obviously, we were there prior to the start of the nesting season.   Aruba Our first dive was in Aruba.  We saw a variety of sea creatures, and two airplanes that were sunk to make an artificial reef, but no sea turtles. C...

So close, and yet so far!  The many islands of the Caribbean  have beckoned to me for decades, and life has now afforded Caroline and me the opportunity to visit a number of these special places.  Well, I hope we get to visit.  We are currently on the Celebrity Summit  which was scheduled to leave San Juan, Puerto Rico two days ago.  Yesterday morning, I woke up early to discover that we were not steaming to Saint Croix Island, but were still tied to the dock at the San Juan Cruise Port Terminal.  The captain announced that we either had navigation or propulsion computer issues.  Looks like those issues continue! The captain just made a ship-wide announcement.  "Our technical issues are taking a little longer than we expected."  Apparently we will leave tonight at 6 PM.  This also means our itinerary will be changed.  Good grief... we had lined up activities on every island, and now we have to make contact with each tour op...