Basking Data

August 2024 -- Basking Narrative

In August, we registered only 66 basking occurrences, exactly the same number as last month!  We needed 88 to keep from falling further behind last year’s total.  Hence, this year so far, we’ve had 493 turtles haul out of the water to bask [including 27 Unidentified turtles (i.e. not named) and 8 haul-outs by a young juvenile we have not decided whether or not to name…YET] compared to last year’s total at the end of August of 605!  That’s 112 turtles less than a year ago!  We’re not likely to make that up because, historically, the latter part of the year sees a fall-off in basking rather than an increase.  April was fully 50 turtles short of the previous year, last month saw 33 fewer turtles on the beach and August had a shortage of 22. Just not suffering a further shortage for the rest of the year would still not allow us to meet our quest to stay above 700 for the entire calendar year because we already project out to a lesser annual total than 2022, which came in at 690.

Through August, Maka Nui still has NOT basked at all in 2024, Makana was only seen once (last year was our 3rd most frequent basker) and Hilahila skipped another month.  JP did return from the French Frigate Shoals on August 26th and basked every day after that, but that only accounted for 6 days of the month.  On a brighter note, we have experienced a larger number of Unidentifiable turtles than normal lately, and have a new Juvenile that may be named soon (it was our 3rd most frequent basker last month but only stopped by once in August).

August saw 4 empty beach days, the same as last month.

During August there were 12 different named turtles that came ashore at least once.  This was, yet again this year, a fewer number of named turtles hauling out during the month than in the same month from the prior year (14).  That number is not “unusual,” (and frankly, 75% of our “active `Ohana) but definitely on the low side of normal.  We actually have 16 turtles that are considered “active,” although 2 of those are nearing a point where they would be considered “on Hiatus” (absence from Laniakea for over a year and a half).  We have not seen Keoki in 17 months and Maka Nui in 8 months (all of 2024).   When talking “Hiatus” turtles, we must mention Hao to put everything in perspective.

Hao was a prolific basker in the beginning; for a time she was actually close to Brutus in frequency of appearances on the beach.  She came to us in the summer of 2010.  Shortly after Brutus disappeared (April 2014) her basking occurrences fell off drastically.  Then in 2016 she began taking longer and longer Hiatuses.  Her first disappearance lasted 9 months, from June 2016 through February 2017; then a couple months later she took an absence of 14 months, basked 9 times over 2 months upon her return and then disappeared again for 31 months!  Upon her return in May of 2021, she basked 84 times on 67 different days, staying past sunset 35 times…then vanished again for parts unknown!  She’s been gone now for 36 months…only slightly longer than her last hiatus!  We would NOT be surprised to see her return “HOME” anytime soon.

Our “top” baskers overall for August ended up in a 3 way tie! Hiwahiwa, Kulihi and Kaimana all hauled out on 8 different occasions. JP’s late month return from (presumably) the French Frigate Shoals on the 26th probably prevented him from taking a place on the list as he basked EVERYDAY upon his return!!

For the 12-month period September 30, 2023 through August 31, 2024, turtles hauled out onto the beach 659 times on 274 days (74.9% of the days).

August had multiple turtles out on 16 of the month’s 31 days, with the greatest exodus from the water happening on the 27th when 6 different turtles hauled out that day.

The 12 different named honu that appeared on the beach at least once in August were Hiwahiwa, Olivia-Dawn, Wooley-Bully, Punahele, Kekoa, Kulihi, Kaimana, Kaipua, Makana, Kanoa, Kai and NoName (temporarily nicknamed “Baby” until official naming takes place).

Year End 2023

In 2023, we saw 771 basking occurrences (a turtle hauling out onto the beach 1 or more times on a given day) and 826 “incidents” of basking (includes multiple appearances by the same turtle on a single day).  Included in the above numbers are 18 sightings of unidentifiable turtles (not named and deemed unrecognizable and, hence, not part of the `Ohana (i.e. family)).  One of those turtles hauled out twice in one day.  Therefore, officially, the “`Ohana” experienced 753 basking occurrences and 825 incidents of basking during 2023.  (See the 1st, 2nd & 3rd charts in the “Historical” section of charts for details on individual basking.)

In regard to “unidentifiable” turtles, we had one (1) addition to the `Ohana in 2023.  In 2022, we twice had activity that we indicated “could” signal a possible addition in the future (Several times in our history a turtle has stopped by a couple times in months previous to becoming a consistent basker at Laniakea.).  Back in 2020, Kanoa did the same thing, basking once in June 2020 and twice in July 2020 but did not become a “regular” basker until April 2021.  This year we added Kai to our ‘Ohana after appearing in 3 different months in 2022, then skipping any beach time for 5 months before becoming a “regular” at Laniakea in March 2023. Unfortunately, Kai has again been on hiatus for 5 months as of January 2024 but we hope to see L-37’s return to our beach soon!

Overall in 2023, 9 turtles basked more, 6 basked less and 1 basked exactly the same number of times as he did in 2022…once (both years in March). Every Honu that basked at Laniakea in 2022 also hauled out here in 2023 but no turtle that has been on hiatus made a return to our beach.

The `Ohana members falling short in beach appearances (6) during 2023 were Hiwahiwa (-8), Olivia-Dawn (-9), Kulihi (-37), Kaimana (-7), Kaipua (-9) and Makana (-24) Those shortages equal -94. Of these turtles, only Hiwahiwa and Olivia-Dawn were in the negative column last year too.

The 9 turtles contributing to the 11.7% upturn in basking for 2023 were Oakley (+20), Wooley-Bully (+25), Punahele (+17), Kekoa (+3), JP (+44), Hilahila (+1), Maka Nui (+13), Kanoa (+31) and Kai (+11).  Overall, these turtles increased their beach appearances a total of +165 more basking occurrences this year.

Our statistics also take into account the distinct differences in the basking habits between the turtles that bask on the “beach” at the north side of the venue and the turtles that bask on the “shelf” on the south side near the lifeguard station. (See the 4th through 9th charts for graphic details regarding times hauling out and duration of time spent on the beach.)

The “beach” turtles as a rule noticeably come out of the water later in the day and stay on the beach longer than the honu that bask on the “shelf.”   This observation is also borne out statistically.  The average daylight time spent on the beach by the 11 beach turtles in 2023 was 3 hours and 19 minutes during 625 incidents of basking. (There were actually 629 separate incidents of basking but 4 started after sunset and, as such, don’t figure into the “daylight” on the beach calculation.)  In comparison, the 5 shelf turtles spent only 2 hours and 24 minutes on the beach in 196 incidents of basking.  In addition, only 14% of the beach turtles exited the water before noon while 36.9% (more than 2 ½ times as many) shelf turtles hauled out in the morning hours.

The 11 “Beach” turtles (Hiwahiwa, Olivia-Dawn, Oakley, Wooley-Bully, Punahele, Kekoa, Kulihi, JP, Maka Nui, Kanoa and Kai) accounted for 110 more basking occurrences in 2023 than the “beach” turtles did in the prior year.  The 5 “Shelf” turtles (Keoki, Hilahila, Kaimana, Kaipua and Makana), came in at -39 baskings for 2022, for a net difference of +71.   Overall, including the Unidentified turtles that visited Laniakea during the year, we had 75 more turtles bask at our beach in 2023 than in 2022.

In regard to the full spectrum of time, 62.4% of beach turtles started their basking between the hours of 1:00 pm to 3:59 pm (62.3% in 2022) and shelf turtles hauled out 61.4% of the time between 11:00 am and 1:59 pm (60.0% in 2022).

With respect to the duration of time “beach” honu spend on the beach in a single incident of basking, they ranged from 1 minute for Kanoa (came out and immediately turned around and went back in the water…then came back 20 minutes later and stayed for over an hour!) to 10 hours for JP (had stayed overnight then sunrise to sunset). For shelf turtles, those single basking incidents ranged from 10 minutes for Kaimana to 8:15 for Makana.  The range of “average duration of time out of the water” for our “beach” turtles is 1:15 for Maka Nui (in 34 incidents) to 4:26 for Wooley-Bully (in 49 incidents).  On the “shelf,” individual basking incidents ranged from 1:06 for Hilahila (11 incidents) to Makana who had an “average” of 3:06. “Old timer” Keoki, for the second year in a row, basked only 1 time, in March, for less than half an hour. He’s included in overall statistics but not on an individual basis.

An additional point on the length of time the individuals stay on the sand is that 8 of 11 of our “beach” turtles (that’s ½ of our total `Ohana) stay on the beach at least 2 hours when they come out.  That’s 77% or three quarters of the time!  Even when you include the other half of the “family,” the number comes out to just under two thirds at 63.2%...lots of viewing time!

For turtle viewing purposes, it is also interesting to note that more than half of the turtles that exit the water are still on the beach when the sun sets.  Overall, 58.5% of basking incidents result with the turtle still on the beach at sunset.  It comes out a little different when the stats are broken down between “beach” and “shelf” turtles.  Beach turtles stay out past sunset 67.5% of the time while Shelf turtles only stay out 28.9% of the time.

Another interesting aspect of turtle basking is to see more than one turtle out on the beach at the same time.  In every month of 2023, we had at least one day with 3 or more turtles up. We also had 4 months with at least one day of 6 or more up, 4 months with at least one day with 7 turtles or more up and 1 day with 9 turtles resting peacefully on the beach.

Individually, 3 turtles stayed overnight at least once. Kulihi stayed the night 4 different times during the year, Wooley-Bully stayed twice and Hiwahiwa once. Kanoa was also recorded as exiting the water AFTER sunset on 4 different occasions.

Several additional items of interest occurred during 2023.

Only 16 of our turtles actually basked during 2023, including a newly named member of the `Ohana.  In March, April and July, 15 of those turtles came out of the water to bask (that’s 93.6% of this year’s active turtles in 3 different months).

None of our Honu reached 100 basking occurrences in 2023, although JP got really close with 98.  However, if counting multiple appearances in 1 day, both JP (100) and Kanoa (112) got to the hundred mark and Makana got really close with 97.

Kekoa and Keoki are the ONLY turtles in the `Ohana that did NOT make multiple appearances on the beach on ANY day of the year (and Kekoa did not make multiple appearances during the YEAR since he only basked once!).

Finally, this was the 1st time since 2013…that’s a Decade ago…that we had 2 whole months (April and July) with no empty beach days!

Historical Basking Narrative

(see the “Historical” section of the Basking Charts for graphic representation of some of this info)
After a “time out” from being able to compare the year-to-year activities of our Honu `Ohana in 2020, a full year of statistics from 2021 will at least allow us to compare the current activity of our turtles back to 2019, the last year for which we have a full year of stats and the year during which we “officially” had the most basking occurrences since 2014, the last full year Kuhina had basked (107 times) at Laniakea (that year, Brutus’ last partial year, he also had basked 64 times in 4 months).  Prior to 2014, yearly basking regularly had numbered over 1000 occurrences as Brutus normally basked over 200 times per year and Kuhina over 100.

The year 2019 had represented a major upturn in Honu basking (741 baskings) since Brutus’ and Kuhina’s departures as we experienced an increase in basking occurrences for the second year in a row. This was the first time in our reliable recorded history back to 2009 that this had happened! That record still stands (“officially”) as the COVID pandemic hit in 2020 and Laniakea Beach (as well as all other beaches on the island) were closed for all or part of 5 months (March, April, May, August and September – a total of 123 days), preventing Mālama i nā Honu from fulfilling not only its educational mission but also its monitoring and recording of basking activity during those periods of time. Hence, though it is entirely possible that basking numbers exceeded 741 in 2020 (we believe they did!), any records to actually confirm this do not exist.

We can speculate all we want (and we will do so directly) about the degree of basking that took place in 2020 and whether or not it would have resulted in a third straight year of increased on shore appearances of our turtles; pandemic beach closures for what amounted to over 1/3 (one third) of the days of the year prevent us from really knowing for sure.

So… let’s digress and relate some conjecture for a moment.  For 2020, we have complete monthly records for 7 months (January, February, June, July, October, November and December).  During those months, 417 basking occurrences were recorded by volunteers.  If we look at the “unrecorded” months (March, April, May, August and September) and use the average basking occurrences of those months from the year before and the year after 2020, (i.e. 2019 and 2021) and add them to the 417, we get 806 basking occurrences!  Considerably more than 741!  If we were to use the same procedure for both the 5 years before 2020 and the 5 years before plus the 1 year after, we’d calculate that out to 764 and 769 respectively.  Hence, it seems extremely likely that had we been able to record basking activity for all 12 months of 2020, that we would have indeed achieved an increase in basking occurrences for a third year in a row.

In 2021, 733 occurrences of basking took place at Laniakea, 717 by named members of the `Ohana and 16 by random “visitors” that stopped by as they passed through the area.  That represents a -1.08% decrease (a net total of 8 less) compared to 2019 but still 11.4% more than appeared in 2018.  We currently “track” 19 turtles (there were 20 in 2019), 14 that bask primarily on the “beach” (north side of Laniakea) and 5 that bask primarily on the “shelf” (south side of Laniakea near the lifeguard station).  There have been exceptions to this “separation,” but they are few and far between.

Overall, 9 turtles basked more in 2021 than in 2019 and 11 basked less (yes, that’s 20 but one of the 2019 turtles is currently on hiatus at this writing!). Of those on the plus side, 6 were with us in 2019, 1 that had been on a long hiatus starting before 2019 (for over 2 1/2 years) and 2 new turtles that joined the `Ohana in 2021. Hao, formerly one of our more frequent baskers, returned in May after an absence of 31 months.  More on her later.  Kanoa joined the `Ohana in April (but with recorded appearances back to June of 2020) and Ho`omaka in September (based on reliable information from NOAA that this turtle has basked at Laniakea and other beaches for some period of time). One turtle, Missy, that basked in 2019 has not shown up since May of 2019 and is now included on our Hiatus list.

Since there are distinct differences in the basking habits of turtles that bask on the beach side of the venue and those that bask on the shelf side, we’ll next discuss some individual turtles’ 2021 activity based on where they bask.  On the “beach” side of the venue, Hao, our returnee from a hiatus, registered the biggest increase in basking appearances over 2019 (when she didn’t appear on the beach at all) with 67. Kulihi basked 56 more times in 2021 than in 2019.  Kanoa, in this honu’s first partial year of basking, hauled out 20 times. Hiwahiwa, Sapphire, Wooley-Bully, and newbie Ho`omaka also recorded increased activity during 2021.  On the “shelf,” Keoki (17) and Hilahila (12) were the only turtles that increased their basking activity in 2021. (See the first 3 charts under the “Historical” section of charts for details on individual basking).

Our statistics also tell us about comings and goings and the duration of time on the beach.  Looking at the `Ohana overall, of the turtles that haul out, more than half (58.3%) do so between 12:00 noon and 3:00 pm.  This is the same time period during which most turtles hauled out back in 2019 (50.2%).  When broken down between beach and shelf groups, the beach group matches the “overall” time period for exiting the water but the shelf group comes out most of the time beginning with the 11:00 hour and reaches 60.3% of its water exits by 2:00. These are also the same time periods for this breakdown recorded in 2019.   (The 4th, 5th and 6th charts in the “Historical” section specifically details this analysis).

Another interesting aspect of turtle basking is to see more than one turtle out on the beach at the same time.  Every month in 2021, we had at least one day with 5 or more turtles up, 7 months with 6 or more and one day in May with 9 turtles resting peacefully on the beach.

Individually, 4 turtles stayed overnight at least once 6 different times during the year (Wooley-Bully 2, Kulihi 2, Kekoa 1, & Hao 1).

In regard to the duration of time individuals spend on the beach, they ranged from 5 minutes for Hiwahiwa to 11 hours and 2 minutes for Kekoa (sunrise to sunset). The range of “average duration of time out of the water” for our “beach” turtles is 1:30 for Kanoa (in 20 appearances) to 4:55 for Kekoa (in 59 appearances).  On the “shelf” they ranged from 47 minutes for Hilahila to 3:35 for “old timer” Keoki.

While we cannot reasonably monitor a turtle’s time on the beach after dark, we do measure how often a basking turtle stays past sunset.  During 2021 there were 717 separate appearances by members of our `ohana and 16 unidentified turtles.  Discounting the unidentifieds, there were 380 times that a turtle that had hauled out (no matter what time of the day) was still on the beach at sunset.  That was more than half the time (52.9%) and very similar to 2019’s percentage (50.3%).  At least one turtle was on the beach at sunset on 220 separate days.  Even though over half of the turtles that haul out onto the beach are still around at sunset, nightfall DOES NOT trigger them to suddenly go back into the water.  Mālama i nā Honu’s records show that less then 1.1 percent (that’s a single digit number) of the turtles on the beach at sunset return to the water before it gets dark!

During 2021, several noteworthy events took place.  The most important was the return of Hao!  No other `Ohana member has ever disappeared for over 2 ½ years and returned to the fold.  Not only did she return, but in the process basked more times during the month, on 23 days, than she had ever basked in a month before.  Her previous high was 20 times.  In June, she continued her return tour with another 18 appearances, continued her prolific return with another 20 basking appearances in July and stayed around for 6 more beach visits through August 13th.  Now she’s gone again!  During her brief stay of 102 days, she was on the beach 87 different times on 67 different days and stayed to sunset 35 times.  Hao has a history of going on hiatus.  She was away for 9 months June 2016-February 2017 and for 14 months June 2017-July 2018.  She’ll be back…we’ll be watching and waiting!

During July and August, we noted aberrant behavior in our O`hana overall, in that far fewer than the normal number of turtles began their basking activity during the morning hours.  Over the past 10+ years, over one quarter (27%) of our basking turtles have appeared before noon.  July of this year was an aberration, with only 9.5% of the honu coming ashore in the AM hours.  This was the lowest percentage of morning baskers since September 2013 when only 7.9% emerged from the ocean in the morning.  An exodus from the water of less than 10% in the morning hours has only happened 5 times over this period.  The same thing happened again in August when only 5 turtles emerged from the ocean in the morning, amounting to only 7.5% of the turtles that basked.  Only once, in September 2011, has a smaller percentage (6.0%) of our baskers been “morning turtles.”  In addition, it is only the second time during this time period that less than 10% of our baskers avoided the morning hours for 2 months in a row.  On both of those occasions, the percentages of morning exits over the 2-month period were almost identical (8.60% this year and 8.55% in August/September 2013).  After a return to the “normal” range of morning water exits in September, the numbers again fell back in October but not under 10%.   Since then, the numbers have again returned to a more normal range of over 20%.

December saw 16 days without any turtle on the beach.  The 16 “turtle-less” days were the most we’ve suffered since January 2018 when there were 18 days without a turtle exiting the water.  The worst basking months in Mālama i nā Honu’s recorded history (since 2009) were January and November of 2016, when 24 days of each month saw no basking activity (i.e.  a turtle only came out of the water on 7 days in January and 6 days in November)!  It should also be noted that even with the dearth of turtles appearing in these two months, 2016 was far from our worst basking year overall.  In 2016 we saw over 150 more basking occurrences than our absolute worst year (2017) when a turtle only appeared on land 507 times.

For calendar year 2021, turtles hauled out onto the beach 733 times on 275 days (75.3% of the days). The previous equivalent period for which we have statistics that we can report is calendar year 2019, which saw 741 basking occurrences on 287 days (78.6% of the days).

Overall, even though total basking was down ever so slightly from prior years, 2021 was nevertheless a positive year for the Laniakea `Ohana.  A turtle long on hiatus (Hao) returned for a short, but basking intensive, visit and two new Honu (Kanoa and Ho`omaka) were added to the `Ohana during the year.  We’re anxious to see what 2022 has in store.