Hangin' with the honus

I know I've been doing a lot more photo-based blog posts than text-based blog posts lately. However, I hope pictures like the one of above can make up for the lack of text. My wife took this shot when we were in Hawaii this past August. Please feel free to click the photo above if you want to see it in all its vivid detail.

I've spent much of the afternoon posting my Hawaii photos to facebook, so please check out my facebook account and let me know what you think. Posting these photos got my thinking about one of the great experiences I had on that trip.

You know those places where you can get to swim with a dolphin? Well, no offense to anybody who has done it, but I think those places suck. Dolphins are pretty damn intelligent creatures, and I can't imagine that it can be good for a dolphin's psyche to be basically fondled by strangers all day long. Look, I'm not really an animal rights person. I have no problem eating all sorts of meat. But for high intelligence animals like dolphins, whales and chimps, I think we should consider what the animals might be feeling.

However, my dislike for the whole "dolphin encounter" thing is about a lot more than animal rights. I just happen to really enjoy nature, and hanging out with a dolphin in a pool somewhere just isn't the type of natural experience that excites me. If I'm going to interact with animals, I want it to be in as natural a setting as possible. This brings me to the great experience I had. When I was in Hawaii, I was lucky enough to swim alongside a Honu ( Honus? ). "Honu" is the Hawaiian word for the sea turtles that live in the Hawaiian waters. The first day we were at our resort in a Hawaii ( The Big Island, Kona side - the Mauna Lani Bay Resort ), I noticed a Honu sunning itself on a rock ( you can see a shot of this in the facebook photos ). Back in February of 2001, I had gotten to watch some Honu ( Honus? I think the plural of Honu just might be Honu. ) eating vegetation growing on rocks in the shallows near our Kona hotel. I was hoping that if I was patient enough, I would notice some Honu in the waters near our resort. I was lucky enough to run into a few turtles twice during the trip. Close to where I saw the turtle sunning itself, I noticed a bunch of vegetation covered rocks in water about 6 feet deep. I swan around there for a bit, and eventually I found some turtles feeding underwater. Unfortunately, I didn't have a camera with me ( It would have been tough to stay deep enough underwater to get a good shot of the turtles without using both hands anyway. I didn't have any flippers on my feet or anything like that. All I really had were goggles for my eyes. The turtles did surface for air once in a while, but they would dive back down again really quickly. ), but the turtles basically looked like turtle in the photo below:


To give you an idea of the scale, the turtles were about 3 feet long. The first time I saw the turtles, the experience basically consisted of me watching them feed. I would take a deep breath and swim down next to where they were feeding, and stay down there watching them for as long as I could hold my breath. That was fun, but not as exciting as what happened the second time I ran into the turtles.

The second time a saw the turtles, things started out pretty much the way they did the first time. I would locate a turtle ( or two ) feeding, and try to watch it for as long as I could. Eventually the turtle would change feeding locations ( or come up for air ) and swim away. I would try to keep up, but eventually the turtle would leave me in the dust ( I would always lose them when I came up for air ). I was only lucky enough to actually swim with one because the following happened:

I was watching two turtles feed, and I came up for air. When I dove back down, I noticed that the turtles were no longer where I last saw them. Initially, I didn't see either turtle, so I started to swim sideways underwater to get a better look at things ( So I wouldn't be facing straight down. I knew the turtles were no longer below me ). I saw it about a split second after I started swimming sideways. It was right next to me. The turtle was only about 3 feet from me, and it was swimming sideways too! For a few seconds I was swimming belly-to-belly with the turtle. It didn't last long, but I'll never forget it. The term "religious experience" is probably overused, but yeah - that's what it felt like.

Anyway, none of my Hawaii photos ( actually Ruth took most of them ) can do justice to that moment, but if you'd like to see some nice scenery and cute pictures of my kids, the facebook link is to the right.

Rich