MAUI, HI: After several years with just a few turtle nests on Maui, we were thrilled to host our annual HWF Nest Watch program with 10 honuʻea or ʻea (hawksbill) nests on three different beaches, while our HWF Dawn Patrol covered 13 different locations on the island of Maui throughout the nesting season (May ~ December).

2023 HWF Nest Watch activities. PC to Hawaiʻi Wildlife Fund.

Our HWF Turtle Team comprised more than 100 volunteers and staff, and protected a total of 1,296 hawksbill hatchlings (!!) as they incubated for several months. Most of these hatchlings were also protected by our crews as they made their way to the ocean (two of these nests hatched without observation). And great news! The majority of these nests had very high success rates:

2023 HWF Nest Watch activities. PC to Hawaiʻi Wildlife Fund.

2023 NESTING SEASON SUMMARY (Maui)

    • Total nests* = 10
    • Live hatchlings (*all hawksbill sea turtles) = 1,296
    • Kawililipoa/ Halama = 4 nests
    • Palauʻea = 4 nests
    • Kapalua Bay = 2 nests

Thank you for your collective support of this program!  We owe our deepest thanks to the vigilance and dedication of our entire HWF Turtle Team aka “Honu ʻOhana”: interns, volunteers, community and staff. We especially send our aloha to those displaced by the Lāhainā fire who found some solace in sharing these joyous moments with us.

Support these efforts and more with a donation (of your money or time) today or through the end of the year via Facebook or our website (wildhawaii.org/donate or wildhawaii.org/calendar for volunteer opps). As we approach Giving Tuesday (Tuesday, November 27th), we are so appreciative of your continued support of our efforts to protect wildlife and help ensure that Hawaii’s native flora, fauna, and ecosystems are thriving for future generations.

Hawaiʻi Wildlife Fund has been helping to protect hawksbill (and green) sea turtles on Maui since 1996, and our friends with the Hawaiʻi Island Hawksbill Recovery Program on Hawaiʻi Island have continued to do the same for the nesting hawksbill sea turtles on Hawaiʻi Island. All of these endangered species activities are done under permits from NOAA, US FWS, and the Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources.