I’ve been meaning to post this video for a while now, and a recent conversation reminded me to go ahead and get it done. We live on Hawaii’s Big Island, the most recently formed island in the chain, with more cliffs than beaches. There used to be a beautiful black sand beach near us, but it got covered by the 2018 lava flow. Now, there’s only a series of hot-spring ponds and a short unprotected black pebble beach, where you’d better not go out past your ankles or else you’ll get pummeled by waves.
If you want to swim (more or less safely), you’d have to drive to Hilo Bay or across the island to find a handful of protected beaches. Or you could take a half-day and hike a couple of miles through the rainforest to our favorite semi-secret secluded cove, Shipman / Haena Beach. The beach cove is protected from the strong Pacific current by an enclosing arm of lava that extends not-quite all the way across, so swimmers are warned to stay on the right-hand side of the cove, close to the rocky tide pools where the sea turtles like to hang out.
There are rules on the islands about disturbing the wildlife. You’re not supposed to feed or bother any marine animals you encounter, and there are specific distance requirements you must maintain. For sea turtles, it’s 10 feet, for monk seals it’s 50 feet (or 150 feet from a mother and pup), for dolphins or small whales it’s 150 feet, and for humpback whales it’s 300 feet.
But when you’re already in the water and a turtle glides past, all you can do is to stay very still and let them go on by. And THAT is a magical experience.
