Rough Tooth Dolphins

Thanks for the great snorkeling adventure. Please find the monk seal picture I promised and a spinner dolphin in action. Feel free to use.

Best! Dave Jones- Salt Lake City

My husband and I had a fantastic time with you on one of your South Shore Snorkeling excursions in July. We plan on returning to Kauai next year to repeat that same trip and also go on your Na Pali Coast snorkel tour. Thank you for taking the picture of Dolly and Molly. However, I’m sending the underwater picture you took of us, even though the turtles were a lot better looking! I will remember to take my camera on every trip into the water next year.

Thank you for sharing your VAST knowledge of the sea creatures and for being so entertaining. We’re looking forward to going with you again.

Arlene and Ron Fasola

SPINNER DOLPHIN ON KAUA'IS' NA PALI COAST

As the Humpback Whales head north to their summer feeding grounds we look forward to a great Summer season of NaPali Coast Snorkel Raft Tours.

Hawai’i is known as a tropical , warm and unchanging environment, but we truly have seasons. The ocean is ever- changing and as we are in the central pacific, we are affected by the currents and storm systems of both the North and South Pacific.
Spring has arrived and the turtles will be nesting soon and the dolphin are actively mating and playing around the Zodiac. The Sea Riders’ crew respect and appreciate the NOAA Code of Conduct when wild ocean animals are around us.  We don’t swim with the dolphin or feed them, but treat them with caution and respect.

We will be commencing our “Na Pali Eco-Charter” on May 1st , when the surf has mellowed and we can snorkel next to the cliffs and enter the Sea Caves. I look forward to exciting adventures and dolphin viewing on every snorkel excursion – here’s to a safe and fun season!

Have just retrieved my shirt from the dash of your experienced and venerable “Jimmy” pickup.

Thank you for hanging onto it for me…more importantly, thank you from Sheila and myself for the most spiritual and uplifting experience of our Kauai visit.  We hope to someday go with you again to see the whales.  Till then we leave the beautiful monsters in your caring and capable hands.

Mahalo nui loa.

Roger & Sheila

Green Sea Turtle Hatchlings/PMRF

In the Hawaiian Islands, Green Sea Turtles have made a great comeback in the past few decades. On our Snorkel charters, it still amazes me to see the sheer number of animals we are blessed to swim with everyday. As a Marine Biologist, I am then overwhelmed that I have lived long enough to see female sea turtles come back to the major Hawaiian Islands to nest. Here on Kaua’i we can boast more turtle nests than anywhere in the state!
This fall season it has been recorded that 19 Kaua’i beaches (360 degrees around the island) have had successful sea turtle nests. Although the true tally of live turtle hatchlings has not been published, the 2011 estimate is 500-1,000!
This increase is very encouraging, yet only a few hatchlings per nest will survive to adulthood.

Photo: Courtesy of Smithsonian Institute

Turtle tracks-Polihale

Female often come ashore to nest, several times in a season, but will wait 2 or 3 years to nest again. Green Sea Turtles nest at night and dig a “body pit” with rear flippers She will deposit approximately 100 eggs into this flask shaped egg cavity. The female will cover the nest with sand and head back to the sea. That is the end of her parental involvement.

The incubation period is 2 months.

Turtles use a specialized egg-tooth called a caruncle to break free of their shell and then use teamwork to climb to the surface. The journey to the ocean is when the turtle hatchlings become affected by environmental hazards. Vehicle tracks and marine debris are some of the physical threats caused by humans, but by far the lights on a beach will disorient and misdirect the young turtles and prevent them from reaching the sea.  Predators, such as sea birds, octopus and  fish, will await the turtle luau. These surviving hatchlings truly learn to swim quickly and frantically into open ocean using amazing instincts and magnetic orientation!

When we encounter drift nets and plastic on our Sea Rider Charters, I always hope that there are Frog Fish in the flotsam.  This Sargasso Fish is not one we would see otherwise on the Hawaiian Reef and we have an opportunity to view one of the most unusual critters of the ocean AND save marine life from entanglement!

Under the Waterfall

Kaua’i Sea Riders offers a discount rate for teenagers for the summer Na Pali Charters.

As a Mom of 3 I realize that traveling with the entourage can be stressful and expensive! In our normal busy lives it is hard to get everyone on the same page. So when you are visiting the Hawaiian Islands in summer with the family, check out Kaua’i's Na Pali Coast by Zodiac with Captain Tara and crew! This adventure on the ocean will surely get your kids to smile!

The above photo is of Bree, a recent High School graduate, who was lovin’ this vacation with her Mom (Melissa), Dad (Joe) and siblings Dean and Miranda.