August 7, 2018 –Those who love Hawaiian green sea turtles will be pleased to learn that they’re currently doing well and thriving.
Such is the summation of Marc Rice, a marine biologist who, for the past 31 years, has directed the Hawaii Preparatory Academy (HPA) Sea Turtle Research Program, and worked at the school for 47 years.
“Hawaii’s turtles weren’t always doing well; in fact, in the ’70s and early ‘80s you didn’t hear much about them,” he said. “I was here for years before I even realized there were green turtles around because they were pretty much hunted out of existence. You hardly ever saw them.”
The situation began changing for the better in 1978, when the Hawaiian green sea turtle was listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.
The HPA Sea Turtle Research Program was created in 1987 through a collaborative partnership between the school and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA/NMFS). George Balazs, a NOAA senior sea turtle biologist who’s now retired, was the driving force behind the cooperative program.
The program’s first tagging trip took place in October 1987 when Balazs, Rice, David Gulko and 20 students traveled to Kiholo State Park Reserve along the Kohala Coast.
“We were out there for three days, had nets in the water 24 hours a day and caught seven turtles,” Rice recalled.