Who Killed 'Honey Girl' the Sea Turtle???

[Al Mialkovsky]

Let me rephrase that.....

A friend of mine told me about the sensless beheading, dismembering and slaughtering of a well known female sea turtle named 'Honey Girl' over on Oahu that was found partially buried in the sand with it's breast plate removed and covered with ants on the well known beach affectionately known as 'Turtle Beach" (aka Laniakea Beach).

Is that better?

Some of us feel pretty darn close to those honu. For me murder worked. Senseless and I'd love to hear that the culprit got caught.

 

[ygthad]

I am also sadden by this.

 

[wardric]

It is shamefull that a threaten specie turtle have been killed.

But the memorial? the naming of the turtle? the interpretation of the scene with the male? that cbs report? That is wayyy over the line.

Still, it's disgusting to poach any threatened animal, turtle or any other. Even worse if it's mostly wasted

 

[letterboy]

What kind of turtle was it?

one with a hard shell, 4 legs a head and a stubby little tail.

 

[Shaka Doug]

one with a hard shell, 4 legs a head and a stubby little tail.

She was supposed to look like that. Instead she was killed and left to rot on a beautiful beach.

So make that...

'one with a broken shell, three legs, no head and a stubby little tail.'

If you missed the news reports, she was a Green Sea Turtle, about 30 years old, around 200 lbs. SHe had been tagged years ago and had been studied as part of the turtle research that takes place here. So she wasn't just "any" turtle, she was a locally known turtle. Although she was wild, many people in the area had grown to know her and had become fond of her. Thye recognized her and she was identifiable. It's a terrible incident. In this sense, she was somewhat of an ambassador for the green sea turtles, practically a member of the beach community and she will be sadly missed by many.

Why do I care? I have logged more than 3,300 dives here on Maui, each around an hour long. The Green Turtles are my favorite part of diving Hawaii. I have taken thousands and thousands of photographs of them. It saddens me that someone would kill one although I understand some people eat them. OK, that's fine, I can accept that. I eat animals too.

My problem is with the way this was done and left on the beach to waste away. If you need to eat one, go get one, take it home and eat it. But to leave it only partially consumed where everyone will find it the next day is just wrong. Had the person(s) who did this killing taken the turtle with them no one would know what happened to her. Everyone would have just assumed she swam off somewhere else, as turtles can do. No one would cry. No one would be heartbroken. No one would be pissed off. Killing that particular turtle didn't just hurt the turtle, it affected many peoples lives, including mine and I am over 100 miles away!

Please have some consideration for the situation and if you have mean or negative comments, please just keep them to yourself. How would you feel if something you loved had been taken so rudely and then people snickered and ridiculed it? It's just not nice.

Ask anyone who knows me. I'm all about being Nice. I didn't post this to ask for money for the reward. The fact that people actually offered a reward was one reason I thought it was an important enough subject to warrant discussion here. I was just telling people about something that happened that I thought was wrong. I was asking my O'hana for help and support on an issue I thought we all agreed on. I know now that I was wrong. Many people = many opinions. I'd like to say "I'm Sorry" to anyone that was put off by it.

So may Honey Girl Rest In Peace. It makes me sad. Here's an uplifitng video I like to watch that makes me feel happy. I hope it does the same for you! You can view it in High Quality and please share it with friends.

Namaste',

Shaka D

 

[Cacia]

Doug, everybody feels bad for you and the turtle. I think the money business is an important thing to question, if you are a serious environmentalist.

Asking about the funds in the case they did not find the person, etc.......


Personally, I don't think it is meaness that motivated some people to *vet* this intention, as there are many, many individulas raising money for emotional environmental occurances and prudent stewards of the environment might feel some responsibility to ask questions.

We all care about the turtles, it comes down to what is the best way to focus the efforts?

 

[HoneyGirlRewardFund]

The Honey Girl Reward Fund is just getting started...we formed this organization less than 2 weeks ago in response to Honey Girl's tragic death. In that two weeks, we have raised over $10,000.00, received encouragement from people all over the globe via phone calls, e-mails, and donations, been the focus of international news organizations, and have been blessed by the support of special local heroes like Doug "Shaka" Corbin and Ron Artis, local business icons like Celeste "Sally" Cheeseman, and the other local turtle conservation groups. I pointedly answered the myriad of uses that funds could responsibly be put to in order to protect and preserve the Honu turtles- we will make a difference. I believe that since our recent inception, we have done much- and we are just getting started. Thank you everyone for your kind support.

 

[ReefGuy]

special local heroes

I really hate it that this word is so abused. It really cheapens the value. No offense to anyone named, but "heroic"? c'mon.

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

I really hate it that this word is so abused. It really cheapens the value. No offense to anyone named, but "heroic"? c'mon.

Don't let yourself get too jaded

Heroic works too. Ask a turtle