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Underwater Photography by Jay Torborg |
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"Turtle Cleaning Station #1" |
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green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas), called honu by the Hawaiians,
is endangered world-wide for a number of reasons. Until 1973, when the
Endangered Species Act was passed, sea turtles were hunted for food and
for tortoiseshell. Recently, Hawaii�s sea turtle populations have
begun to show some signs of recovery. This turtle is having his shell
cleaned by yellow and black tangs at a cleaning station. The
tangs pick the algae off the turtle�s shell, reducing the turtle�s
swimming resistance. Cleaning stations may attract many turtles�one
diver has seen 14 turtles being cleaned at once.
This image was captured in about 35 ft of water at a dive site appropriately named "Turtles" in front of the Mauna Lani Resort on the Big Island of Hawaii. Photographed with a Nikon N90s in a Sea&Sea NX90 housing with two Ikelite 200 strobes. Nikon 60mm f2.8 macro lens. Fuji Provia 100F transparency film scanned with a Nikon LS-2000. |
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Copyright Jay Torborg 2000, 2001 |
