Aloha Honu

Here is another post about my recent trip to Hawaii.

Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles, also known as Honu, symbolize good luck and long life; they are revered as fine navigators who can always find their way home.

Some legends credit turtles with leading the first Polynesians to the Hawaiian Islands.

 

In ancient Hawaii, turtles had sacred status and only members of the Royal family were allowed to eat them.

 

 

The Green Sea Turtle is considered a guardian spirit that can change its shape at will. The Hawaiian God of the sea, Kanaloa, often assumed the shape of a sea turtle.

 

Turtles are now protected, I took the close ups with a telephoto lens, mostly from about 20 feet away.

Not everyone however respects this distance, there were many taking "selfies" with the turtles.

 

Turtles are ancient creatures, inhabiting the earth since the time of the dinosaurs.

 

Sea turtles cannot retract their heads and limbs into their shells and the Green Sea Turtle is named for the colour of its skin not its shell; their colour ranges from yellow to olive green to brown and almost black.

 

 

Adult turtles are vegetarian, they feed on algae and sea grasses.

 

 

They come up onto the beach or rocks to "sunbathe" and return to the water to feed.

 

 

This one is not nesting just prefers to bury itself in the warm (hot to my feet) sand.

 

 

 

The Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle breeds and nests almost exclusively at the French Frigate Shoals, an atoll located in the northwestern part of the Hawaiian Island Archipelago, inside a National Wildlife Refuge.

 

 

 

 

Beautiful, peaceful creatures.

 

 

 

Mahalo, I hope you have enjoyed todays journey.

 

 I appreciate and thrive on your feedback.

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Here is another ink and watercolour sketch I did while I was in Hawaii:

 

 

 

  

That's all for this week,  

happy Wednesday, with whimsy,

 

Gillian.