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Underwater Photography by Jay Torborg |
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"Turtle Cleaning Station #2" |
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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 photograph was taken in about 35 ft of water near Puako Beach 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 |
