Hawaiian green sea turtle

Photo: MARC MARTIN SOLA · CC BY-NC

Hawaiian green turtles use General Stores as a regular cleaning station, hovering motionless at specific coral heads while yellow tang and surgeonfish remove algae from their shells and skin — a mutualistic relationship that benefits both parties. Adults are largely herbivorous, grazing on reef algae and seagrass, and their grazing activity plays a measurable role in controlling algal communities on Hawaiian reefs. The species' recovery under federal protection is one of the most cited conservation success stories in US waters, with honu now abundant enough to be reliably encountered on virtually every dive along Kauai's sheltered coasts.