More turtles on Kauai and across the main Hawaiian Islands are being tagged to track their movements for possible nesting and basking changes and NOAA reseachers are turning to citizen scientists for help.
Earlier this month, NOAA introduced a new way of reporting re-sightings of honu with motos (identifications made with non-toxic paint) that utilizes an online form (found here) for data collection.
The new survey format is supposed to make collecting data easier for citizen scientists and provide a more complete and accurate dataset of re-sightings. For example, within the survey, there is a map where the user drops a pin of their sighting, which then records the GPS coordinates of the sighting. Getting accurate coordinates of sightings provides a clearer picture of foraging grounds, population dispersal, as well as where our rehab honu are spending their time post-rehab.
The form includes fields for:
- Date/time
- Honu ID
- Island
- Area/Location
- Behavior
- Photos
- Comments
On the back end, a map of all sightings is automatically generated along with a spreadsheet of all the sighting information, reducing time manually entering data and making analysis easier.
The Honu Count began in 2017 as a way to get the community involved in reporting returning Lalo (French Frigate Shoals) honu around the main Hawaiian islands. The citizen science project started with a hotline, then moved to the Respect Wildlife email, and is now evolving to an online survey generated through ArcGIS Survey123. The survey can be used from smartphones, tablets, and computers through any of the major browsers (Google, Firefox, Safari, etc.). More information can be found at this website.
The flyer below has a QR code that also links directly to the survey.
Kaua'i Seals 