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Hale O'Honu

Great diving at House of Turtles (Hale O'Honu). There are always numerous turtles. In the Keys you are lucky to see more than one turtle on any given day. Here on Kauai it's almost a constant parade of turtles. Most of the turtles do look very healthy and are very large. Some are over 6 feet long, absolutely massive. A few have cracked shells as if they have had a run in with a boat prop or a very large Tiger Shark.

What is disturbing is that some of the turtles have what appear to be hard white growths on the soft parts of their bodies. The growths are very visible and obvious (below are some pictures). The afflicted turtles generally appear unaffected except for those with a great amount of growth around their eyes. They sometimes bump into you. And you must be careful because it is a federal offense to touch turtles in Hawaii. The feds will slap you with a $10,000.00 fine, if caught of course.

Overall, they are amazing and gracious creatures. If you ever wondered how to determine a turtles gender, I have the answer for you. Turtle with a long tail are male. Those with a shorter more stubby tail are female. Now you can impress your friends with some aquatic knowledge.


Healthy looking turtles - see no visible growths




















Turtle with growths



























Turtle being cleaned by a butterfly fish. The growths do not seem to deter the cleaning fish from helping out their air breathing neighbors.

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