Feb-March 2026 – Kihei, Maui
The green turtles of Hawaii are pretty amazing and we have been blessed to see many these last two weeks close up. Hawaii is known as one of the three places that green turtles come onto land to rest or to get some sun. The other two places are the Galapagos Islands and Australia. We have seen them resting on land, swimming nearby while we snorkle, and even just poking their heads up for air while we sit on the beach. We got really excited a few nights ago when we found out that just 1/4 mile north of our condo, about 15-25 turtles come onto the beach each night right after sunset. Since then we have gone out several times to cheer them on as they seem to struggle in the surf to get up onto land and safe.
They do tend to surprise you since they are so big. Some are over 400 pounds and their shells can be 3-4 feet long. More than once I have been snorkeling and then a turtle will just appear, seemingly out of nowhere, and just keep swimming along. Here are two videos of some of some of our recent encounters. These were off South Kihei at Makena Landing.
It has now become sort of game to find the turtles. Is that a rock? No, it moved, so it must be a turtle. Our first stop for turtles is on the North Shore of East Maui at Ho’okipa Beach Park. This is the main site most people visit since there are ALWAYS turtles, along with the surfers and windsurfers taking in the big waves. There must have been 30-40 turtles and they were either resting or moving into our out of the water.
We realized that one of the turtles actually had some white lettering on its shell – on its back right side. We put in its number and found out that we could be part of a citizen scientist (again!) and help track these turtles. Nearly all of these Hawaiian green turtles lay their eggs 1,000 miles away on very tiny islands that are part of the French Frigate Shoals (google it). We put in all the information and added to this study. It was fun to help out in one small way.
Finally, we didn’t see any baby sea turtles (since they are mostly hatched elsewhere), but we thought everyone needed to smile – so here is a picture of what they look like. Ahhh.
Siri and David Adventures 