George Balazs, Hawai‘i Senior Sea Turtle Scientist at NOAA’s Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, recently retired from NOAA service—but not from sea turtle research.
In October 2017, two visitors from the continental U.S. sparked outrage when they posted a photo of themselves holding a green sea turtle (honu) on a Hawaiʻi Island beach. In the photo caption, they boasted about risking a fine to catch the turtle.
