Hawaii Snorkeling 101

Snorkeling! Super fun, educational, great exercise, and a wonderful experience. However, if you're new to snorkeling and you don't know how your equipment works, what the weather is like, or basic skills, the experience can be a little scary and down right miserable.

No worries beef curries! This little guide offers some advice on how to prepare for and enjoy your snorkel experience. 

If you're about to snorkel for the first time and you're not well acquainted with the water and don't have any snorkeling skills you may find yourself in a bit of trouble.

Mystery Bones at Kahului Harbor

A couple of weeks ago I found a bone at Kahului Harbor Section 2.
It looked like a turtle beak, but I'm not quite sure. Last time I made a guess about a turtle I was incorrect.
Anyways, here's some pictures:

FINAL Update on Dead Turtle at Kahului Harbor

So as stated in the entry before this one, I met Michelle, a volunteer from the Turtle Stranding Network, out at the harbor yesterday.

I took her to where the carcass was, she measured it at 81cm long, and after a few moments where technology did not want to help us, we were finally able to send pictures to George Balazs.
(I believe he is the Sea Turtle Scientist I read about some where).

We were finally able to send him pictures and he confirmed that is was NOT a hawksbill sea turtle. It was, indeed, a green sea turtle.
(Read further for more information and pictures. Keep in mind, they're still nasty).

Second Follow Up on Dead Turtle at Kahului Harbor

I met Michelle out at Kahului Harbor and showed her where the dead turtle was. (I must have not explained it correctly the first time).

After having a rather difficult time taking pictures of the turtle and e-mailing them to her Head of her division, we've finally identified that it was NOT a hawksbill turtle.

She measured it at 81cm long and it was a green sea turtle.

Since hawksbill turtle are critically endangered and green sea turtles are not, Michelle did not need to collect the carcass. Which was totally okay with us since the remains were even WORSE than tuesday.

I also confirmed that it did indeed have Fibropapilloma (turtle tumors/turtle herpes). Those lumps protruding out of the bottom of its eye and at the base of its neck are remnants of those tumors.

So after all that, the carcass will just be left there to let the ocean take it bit by bit.

(more pictures and video log to be posted later tonight)

Dead Hawksbill at Kahului Harbor... Still there; Turtle Birthdays at Maui Ocean Center Tomorrow, June 29!

Two days ago, Michelle, one of the ladies with the Turtle Stranding Network, was unable to locate the dead turtle at Kahului Harbor.

So I went back there yesterday to see if it was still there, and yes it was.
It actually got a little worse (I think) because the odor was ridiculously strong... Very stink and nasty...

I took a short video to show that I had propped its head up on some rocks. You can really see the lump on the back of its neck, which I still think is a tumor.

(The following is the video of the dead turtle):

Advanced Open Water "Scuba-fication"

Hey everyone,
I really need to get this blogging thing on a more consistent pace again.
So! A lots has happened in the past month.
I was Open Water Scuba Certified, or what I like to call, "Scuba-fied" and yesterday, I had completed my boat dive and deep dive for my Advanced Open Water!
It was so amazing.
For our deep dive, my partner, my instructor and myself went out to Molokini with the Maui Dive Shops boat the Makakoa.
We jumped off the boat and into the water and went down to 100ft!
And the first sea creature my instructor, Wayne, took us to see were two white tip sharks sleeping in this little cave~
They reminded me of cats! Sleeping all day and staying up all night.
We did our little puzzle thing we had to do underwater, then he took us around Molokini!
SO MANY COOL THINGS TO DORK OUT ON!
Varieties of fish, I saw my first flatworm, there were garden eels, peanut eels, those two white tips, butterflyfish, pufferfish (which are my favorite), so many things down there!

After our deep dive, we headed over to another dive spot called 5 Caves. Other people know it as 7 Graves or Turtle Town. (poh-tay-toe; poh-tah-toe)
We went down to about 40 ft here. And again... SO MANY THINGS TO DORK OUT ON.

"Code Of Conduct"

This past Saturday, August 27, 2011, some friends and I went out to Black Rock here on Maui to go enjoy a nice day at the beach with some exchange students from Japan.
All was well for the entire day! Well, almost the entire day. We were having fun, jumping off the rocks in the ocean and showing the Japanese students how to jump off and everything.

My cousin and I were going for our last jump off the top of Black Rock when i noticed, down to my left at the bottom of the jump, there were many snorkelers gathering around something that was in the water.

I saw there were two green sea turtles and the way the tourists were gathering around them, looked so dangerous... They were literally CORNERING the turtles against the rock face that it almost got stuck on the rocks... I was so angry... I watched the tourists as they continued to get even CLOSER to the turtles!