A community science initiative to track Hawaiʻi’s protected green sea turtles is the focus of a new research paper.
For decades, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, have been making shell etching on turtles to track their migration and foraging behavior.
When concerned citizens began spotting these etchings and mistaking them for graffiti, it inspired them to launch the “Honu Count” in 2017, an educational initiative that allows members of the public to report turtle sightings.
Now, that crowdsourced data is helping inform the boundaries of protected habitat for the species.
Brittany Clemans is a wildlife biologist who spent six months in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands to track turtles at their breeding grounds. She spoke with HPR to explain more about the Honu Count and how the shell etchings work.
The etchings, Clemans explained, are a painless and practical way to keep track of sea turtles in the wild. To track a turtle, scientists use light dremel work to etch a code and number based on the location before using non-toxic white paint to color the impression.
“It does not hurt the turtles,” she said.
It’s not only a cheaper alternative to the more expensive option of satellite tracking, Clemans said; its crowdsourced nature makes it all the more effective as well.
“A dremel and some non-toxic white spray paint? Very cheap, and you can apply those to as many sea turtles as will let you. And then more eyes on more sea turtles gives us more information of the distribution.”
Clemans co-authored the paper that used this crowdsourced information to determine where critical habitats for Hawaiian green sea turtles were located.
“The data that was submitted by the community of our honu helped us essentially determine these important foraging sites, so we were able to really get the density of certain places that the majority of honu were frequenting,” Clemans explained.
If any beachgoers spot an etched sea turtle and want to help contribute to the community effort to study their movements, it’s as simple as filling out the Honu Count Sighting Survey on the NOAA website.
“It's important for the community to know that they are having a really positive impact on increasing this data set, which helps us understand this species more,” Clemans said.
“This species is part of Hawaiʻi and part of the ocean as a whole, and I think it's also very important for people to just be excited and ask questions.”
More information on the Honu Count as well as the survey to report etched turtle sightings can be found here.
This story aired on The Conversation on May 27, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
