Hawaii's green sea turtle expert felt "great excitement" when he learned this summer that "Maui Girl" had come to nest in Lahaina again.
Turtle fanciers had feared that Maui Girl had died because she failed to show up to dig nests last year, said George Balazs, leader of the Marine Turtle Research Program at the federal Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center on Oahu.
The green sea turtle, known in research reports as 5690 but to her fans as Maui Girl, since 2000 has been showing up consistently every other year to nest on Maui's west side.
Balazs said researchers became worried when she didn't nest last year.
"So great excitement when it came apparent she had to do a three-year (nesting) cycle after all those years of two-year cycles," he said Monday.
"My excitement is she's alive, she's well, she's back," Balazs added. He said he's not going to worry about why she took three years to nest instead of her usual two.
Over the weekend, Maui Girl completed at least her second nest this season in Lahaina near the 505 Front Street shopping center under the watchful eyes of turtle enthusiasts and sport divers Peter Bennett and his wife, Ursula Keuper-Bennett, of Mississauga, Ontario, who are here most every summer.
Bennett said that early Sunday morning, Maui Girl made her nest near the one she made two weeks ago at the same beach. Green sea turtles, which are federally listed as threatened, return several times to nest in one summer season.
"Every time it's always quite fascinating," Bennett said of the nesting process.
While it takes Maui Girl only around 15 minutes to lay her 100 or more eggs, the nesting process lasts hours, as she may go around and around the sandy shore area to find a suitable spot, Bennett said.
After finding a likely spot, Maui Girl first digs a "body pit." The pit may be 18 inches or deeper. Then she digs an egg chamber, also around 18 inches deep. The chamber may be shaped like an upside-down light bulb, narrow at the top and wider at the bottom, Bennett said.
Then she covers the area up.
"It takes a while," said Bennett, who has watched the process many times. "She covers it up right up to the level of sand she starts to dig.
"It's very exhausting for a turtle," he added.
When she's done, she submerges herself back into the water again. If no one spots her, turtle watchers often detect the appearance of a new nest by the marks she leaves in the sand. Her habit of sticking pretty close to the stretch of beach from Lahaina Shores to Kamehamehaiki Park makes her easy to monitor.
Bennett said the area around the new nest is roped off.
Maui Girl is a famous and significant turtle. Balazs says she is unique as the first captive-reared Hawaiian green sea turtle known for certain to have grown to maturity and started reproducing. The tag attached to her small body when she was set into the ocean off the Big Island survived for decades, as has she.
She also is the first green sea turtle known to have nested in Lahaina in 50 years.
Although Balazs wasn't worried about why Maui Girl didn't nest last year, he and others speculate that it could be related to the algae in the Napili and Kapalua area where she lives.
He said that several years ago, residents and visitors complained about the stinky and ever-growing algae.
It can be a nuisance for humans, but the algae is food for the turtles. Balazs said green sea turtles take a year or so to get fat enough to lay eggs, whose yolks are rich in fat.
Bennett said Maui Girl usually lays around 80 to 90 eggs compared to about 100 that are more usual for other turtles.
But Maui Girl tends to make more nestings, more than the four or five that the turtles usually make.
Bennett said it takes about two months for a turtle's eggs to hatch, but Maui Girl's eggs may hatch sooner, as this nest is out in the sun.
She is expected to come back in about two weeks to nest again.
* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.
