Vanuatu 2024 trip completed
January 4 to January 14, 2024
HPA’s Sea Turtle Research Program completed its 5th field season on Moso Island Vanuatu on Jan 13, 2024. Team members were Laura Jim, Marc Rice and students Luke and Zane. We were able to capture and tag three (3) post nesting hawksbill turtles and they were all safely and harmlessly released and are currently transmitting their locations.
Turtle trajectories and further information can be found here.
STRP visits Hualalai
Laura Jim, Marc Rice and 7 HPA student volunteers joined David Chai and his team at the Four Seasons Resort, Hualalai for a capture/recapture field research day. The day was beautiful but the surf had come up and it was only possible to work during the morning low tide. We were able to capture, measure, weigh, tag and health assess 6 small honu (green turtle) during the morning. 5 of the six were new captures and one was a recapture from a previous trip. All of the honu were quite small and appeared to be new recruits from the previous year.
Upcoming events & activities
The HPA Sea Turtle Research Program has 33 trained and active student volunteers. Each of these students has completed the mandatory training sessions on sea turtle biology and field work protocol. Each of them is qualified to participate in field
We have completed three field days this school year (Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park, , Puako and Mauna Lani. During the second semester we are planning trips to Hualalai, and the Hilton Hotel Lagoon. We Just completed our fifth trip to the Republic of Vanuatu to continue our research into post-nesting hawksbill migrations and we are working on a trip to Nagoya Japan as part of the STRETCH project.
Please visit Our Recent Trips Page for a list of activities that we have completed this year.
INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH IN VANUATU
HPA’S STRP has carried out three trips to the Republic of Vanuatu to satellite tag post-nesting hawksbill turtes in an attempt to better understand the nesting population on Moso Island and learn more about the home foraging grounds of nesters that travel to Moso Island.
We have completed our research trip for 2023. You can see some of the results here.
