Spotting Sea Turtles At Poipu Beach In Kaua’i, HI

My favorite island in Hawai’i that we visited was Kaua’i. One of the primary reasons was my experiences with the green sea turtles (honu) on Poipu Beach. We were given a tip to go to the beach by a family at the Grand Hyatt (see our review here) we were staying at and it was even better than I’d imagined.

The family had recommended going at sunset to see the honu come up on the shore to sleep at night. I had no idea that we’d see ~40 on the evening we visited and ~90 on the night I went back for astrophotography.

Green sea turtles are the only sea turtles that are known to bask on the shore and Hawai’i is the only recorded location where they do this, but it isn’t their nesting grounds. Scientists don’t know why, but they assume it may have something to do with the concentration of predators in the area around the islands. While the honu can come up on any beach, there is one major beach on each of the islands where groups of green sea turtles are known to bask and on Kaua’i it’s Poipu Beach.

We went over for sunset and weren’t disappointed. The honu at Poipu Beach are protected by federal law, the local sea turtle conservation group – Mālama i nā Honu – and members of the local community. The volunteers mark off the area (or the lifeguards do if it’s early in the day) and answer questions about the honu for the visiting public. I got a front row spot in a few different locations and ended up with some precious photos – including one honu yawning as it settled in for its nap and one that ended up on my arm as a tattoo.

I got the honu tattoo with my mom on O’ahu at the end of our time in Hawai’i so I wouldn’t miss out on water time while we were there during December. With it being the end of our road trip, I wanted something meaningful and after spending so much time in the water and on shore observing the honu I knew I wanted something connecting me to them.

When I researched their meaning in Hawai’ian culture I knew I’d made the right choice. The honu represent “lifelong protection, wisdom and guidance” and the waves represent “the ebb and flow of life” which was perfect for the final state and end of our 7-year, 50-state road trip.

The volunteers were so helpful, kind and obviously loved the honu and took their safety seriously. I appreciated their information so much that I ended up ordering a sweatshirt from their organization to support their mission (thank you for my Christmas gift, Mary!) and I wore to our local aquarium back in VA when it arrived.

People do swim in the waters of Poipu Beach throughout the day, so it’s important to pay attention because a honu could just be swimming next to you! Also, make sure you wear water shoes as the sea floor there is very rocky.

Here are a few pictures of the honu basking on Poipu Beach on Kaua’i – including some of the astrophotography I did as well. It was an incredible experience and I found out about the three other beaches on the three other islands, so watch back for that post for more honu content. As always, I’m a safe distance away using my Nikon D5600 camera and Tamron 70-200 lens (our affiliate links) to get these shots.

If visiting Poipu Beach at night to watch the sea turtles, make sure you have a red light flashlight on you or downloaded on your phone as no white lights are allowed on the beach to view the honu. The red lights you can see here are used by the volunteers to keep a count of the honu each evening and to point out features as they answer questions for the public.

Time lapse videos from the process were also created – it’s 4 minutes of filming condensed into 1 second videos. The black spots in the water are honu swimming around.

The bright moon meant it was good for seeing stars, but even better for seeing turtles with all the brightness from two angles. Despite that, stars were still on full display.