LIHUE — A Hawaiian green sea turtle was rescued from a storm drain Friday morning.
A call came in Thursday night about children who found a sea turtle near Kauai Dance Center at around 6:30 p.m. Thursday, said Don Heacock, a biologist who works in the Division of Aquatic Resources for the Kauai District Fisheries.
He enlisted the help of workers at the Department of Transportation, who used a forklift to get the grate off the drain. The forklift was also used to pull out the sea turtle, which was secured by a rope.
The endangered creature was out within seconds, underweight and slightly injured.
“She should be roughly 125 pounds,” Heacock said. “But she’s very light; she’s probably around 90 pounds because she’s lost so much weight. She’s emaciated; we can tell that by the concavity of her bottom shell.”
Heacock, who has served as Kauai’s biologist for 35 years, said this was the first time he’s rescued a sea turtle from a drain. He estimates the juvenile turtle had been stuck since Christmas.
It’s not certain how the turtle ended up there, but there are two possibilities, Heacock said.
One was that the turtle was feeding on algae in the bay and got swept into the drain during high tide. Another possibility is that the turtle was sick and didn’t have the strength to fight a wave and got pushed in.
But in both scenarios, the turtle didn’t have enough room to turn around and get itself out.
“Sea turtles can’t go in reverse,” Heacock said. “To change directions, they have to completely turn themselves around.”
Sea turtles can go a long time, without eating or drinking, Heacock said.
It was unclear if the sea turtle, estimated to be 32 inches long, was a male or female, he said.
“Sea turtles don’t reach sexual maturity until they reach 36 inches,” Heacock said.
The sea turtle was placed in Heacock’s pickup truck, driven to Kalapaki Beach and tagged.
After tagging the sea turtle, Heacock and DOT employees Billy Rodriguez and Bully Ventar, carried it to the water’s edge. The turtle took a couple minutes to get oriented, but it soon started swimming away from the beach.
The population of Hawaiian green sea turtles is growing, Heacock said.
“The green turtles here don’t migrate to Tahiti or Samoa, they stay right in Hawaii,” he said. “That’s why they are a distinct population.”
And rescues like the one on Friday will become more common if preventative steps aren’t taken, Heacock said.
One such step is installing flapper valves, Heacock said.
A flapper valve is placed in front of storm drains that blocks anything from getting in, but allows water to flow out of the drain.
But a turtle getting stuck in a storm drain is rare, Heacock said. Run-ins with boats are a common hazard for sea turtles in Nawaliwili Harbor.
“About 20 years ago, I got a call from the mayor’s office about a turtle dead on Kalapaki Beach. I turned her over, and she had a cut from her belly all the way across,” Heacock said.
Heacock credits Friday’s rescue to the children who found her.
“What really saved her were the kids who looked down and saw her in the storm drain,” he said. “Because no one looks in storm drains unless they drop their keys.”
