As my week-long visit to Kauai reached its last day, I had seen very few turtles. In fact, I encountered only three. One was sunning itself in Poipu along with two monk seals on a beach crowded with tourists. Another floated by my tour boat as it sailed along the Napali Coast. Finally I swam with one on the reef off of Tunnels Beach while I snorkeled from that same tour boat.
My visits to the Hawaiian Islands typically include numerous sighting of green sea turtles: usually too many to count. So I was desperate to recapture some of that good fortune when I set out snorkeling at Anini Beach on that last day in Hawaii.
Encountering green sea turtles is becoming easier and easier thanks to decades of conservation efforts. The species was protected in 1978 under the Endangered Species Act and the results are noticeable today. On my previous trip to Hawaii, to the island of Maui, I never entered the water - which I did multiple times a day - without seeing at least one turtle.
On my last visit to Anini Beach over two years ago, I saw exactly one turtle, so my expectations were hopeful but still low. The site might be the easiest to reach of the renowned snorkeling spots on Kauai's scenic north shore. The others - Tunnels, Ke'e, and Hideaways - have their unique difficulties in terms of parking and ocean access.
What Anini shares with most of the other locations is protection from large waves which break on an outer reef hundreds of yards off shore. As a result, a long sandy beach welcomes you to a clear (on most days) underwater world.
As I made the easy walk from the parking lot to the beach, a life guard on roving patrol told me that turtles should be plentiful to the right of the boat ramp. I could see quite a few snorkelers in the area, their flippers splashing and their snorkel tubes protruding from the water. Within five minutes I donned my own gear and waded in.
The shallow sea floor was sandy and devoid of large coral clusters. In a few small, bleached formations hid baby damselfish hovering for protection between stone fingers. I remembered similar scenery greeted me last time I visited.
However a surprise soon lay ahead when I noticed several murky forms. I quickly recognized them as green sea turtles, at first a trio, but then increasing in number. Eventually I counted at least six all around me. They were gathered over and around a large dead coral grouping. Numerous fish were picking at a couple of the turtles' shells. Holy cow, within minutes of entering the ocean, I had stumbled upon a turtle cleaning station!
I've heard of these spots before; Hawaiian excursion tours often refer to them in their advertisements. The sites are reef locales where turtles gather and allow fish to eat algae from their skin and shells. However I'm not sure each of these cleaning stations are fixed or continuously visited by turtles. Perhaps they're "pop-up" enterprises? Whatever the case, the creatures have their favorite locations for food and safety. And why not let other reef life eat off your back if it keeps you sleek and swimming efficiently?
Convict tangs and gold-ring surgeonfish, along with a few wrasses, were the predominate cleaners. Nearby, Hawaiian damselfish looked on curiously at the activity. A whitemouth moray poked its head out of a coral tunnel, but the eel showed no interest in pursuing anything the turtles could offer. Before long, a number of other snorkelers showed up to watch the spectacle.
I later ventured hundreds of yards toward the breaking waves of the outer reef, for safety keeping close to two tight groups of students on field trips. In most spots, the water was shallow enough to stand up in. Lone turtles rested under rocky ledges, others broke the surface for air, and some fed on sea grass and algae. I hadn't witnessed as many turtles in a single location since visiting Honokeana Cove on Maui almost a year ago.
Camera in hand, I paused to observe and photograph a lot of other marine life: numerous reef triggerfish, a favorite of mine; a juvenile yellow tang; a couple of royal-blue male spotted boxfish, one with its very own cleaner wrasse on duty; whitespotted tobies; sea cucumbers; a blue-colored bird wrasse; a giant porcupinefish snuggly hiding in a rocky crevice; a school of chubs.
I noticed under a few coral ledges large gelatinous bubbles. They might have been empty mucus cocoons, created uniquely by parrotfish to protect themselves while sleeping from predators like eels or from parasites. However I didn't locate one single parrotfish in the area.
The reef looked healthier farther away from shore where a larger variety of corals appeared less bleached and algae-covered, their colors often pink or yellow. I made a mental note to pick up a book on coral to join the thumbed-through one I already own on Hawaiian reef fish.
Over the course of three hours, I made three separate snorkels, each time visiting the cleaning station at least once. On my last stop I counted eight turtles gathered within my field of vision.
With only a few hours left before my red-eye flight home to Phoenix, I finally bid farewell to this enchanting underwater world. Like most everywhere in Kauai, a carwash for turtles was enticing me back within minutes of my leaving.
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| Green sea turtles gathered at a cleaning station off of Anini Beach in Kauai. |
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| Green sea turtles gathered at a cleaning station off of Anini Beach in Kauai. |
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| Green sea turtle being cleaned by a convict tang off of Anini Beach in Kauai. |
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| Gold-ring surgeonfish and convict tangs eating algae off of a green sea turtle off of Anini Beach in Kauai. |
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| Green sea turtle being cleaned mostly by convict tangs off of Anini Beach in Kauai. |
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| White-mouthed moray in a cluster of mostly dead coral, the site of a turtle cleaning station off of Anini Beach in Kauai. |
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| Green sea turtle on a healthier section of the reef off of Anini Beach in Kauai. |
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| Coral reef off of Anini Beach in Kauai. |
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| Green sea turtle grazing on the reef off of Anini Beach in Kauai. A hook motif on its back might show where fish recently scoured for algae. The fishhook is incidentally a Polynesian symbol representing safe passage over water. |
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| Green sea turtle surfacing for air over the reef off of Anini Beach in Kauai. |
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| Green sea turtle resting under a ledge off of Anini Beach in Kauai. |
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| Green sea turtle headed for a wash at a turtle cleaning station off of Anini Beach in Kauai. |
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| View of Anini Beach in Kauai. |
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